 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific III 2013 |
| Article no.: | 2 | |
| Topic: | IPv6: Creating Business Opportunities Worldwide | |
| Author: | John Curran | |
| Title: | John Curran, President & CEO | |
| Organisation: | American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) | |
| PDF size: | 398KB |
About author
John Curran is the President and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), responsible for leading the organization in its mission of managing the distribution of Internet number resources in its geographic region. He
is also a founder of ARIN and has served as its Chairman from inception through early 2009. John’s experience in the Internet industry includes serving as CTO and COO for ServerVault, which provides highly secure, fully managed infrastructure solutions for sensitive federal government and commercial applications.
Prior to this, John Curran was CTO for XO Communications, and was instrumental in leading the organization’s technical initiatives, network architecture, and design of leading-edge capabilities built into the company’s nationwide network. Mr. Curran also served as CTO for BBN/GTE Internetworking, where he was responsible for the organization’s strategic technology direction. He led BBN’s technical evolution from one of the earliest Internet Service Providers through its growth and eventual acquisition by GTE. He has also been an active participant in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), having both co-chaired the IETF Operations and Network Management Area and served as a member of the IPng (IPv6) Directorate.
Article abstract
The phenomenal growth of the Internet, which contributed revolutionized how we do business today, can come to a halt if the number of available IP addresses is not increased significantly by the adoption of IPv6. In order to continue reaching all types of devices, businesses must begin the transition process now. Those who do not upgrade will risk losing customers’ loyalty and consequently revenues, because their service will be slower than their IPv6-based counterparts’.
Full Article
When the Internet was first conceived as a better way for computers to communicate with one another, no one could predict the impact it would have on business communications. Today all businesses depend on the Internet to reach customers, manage suppliers, and conduct most internal and external business operations. We’ve moved from an era of paper correspondence and fax into an era of email and web interfaces. The Internet has changed the nature of routine business communication.
Just as business norms have changed over time, so too, has the Internet. The underlying architecture that has supported the Internet thus far has been almost exhausted. There are only roughly 4.3 billion Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses, which is not nearly enough to meet the ever-expanding needs of the commercial Internet. Rapidly growing numbers of Internet users, networks, and connected devices require more unique identifiers than IPv4 can provide. Already two out of five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) have reached their final inventories of IPv4 address space, including the Asia-Pacific and European regions – and other regions are not far behind.
To deal with this shortage of address space, many networks are being reconfigured to support the next generation of IP addresses — IPv6. IPv6 provides a very large number of addresses, namely more than 340 undecillion (1036 US scale), to account for massive Internet growth, far into the future. For years, the RIRs have been encouraging businesses to adopt the new protocol. Now at the cusp of IPv4 depletion, there is even more urgency to move networks to IPv6. Every business that depends on the Internet for business communication and operation must prepare to move toward IPv6, while Internet Service Providers begin making use of IPv6 to connect new customers to the Internet.
IP Addresses and the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is one of the five RIRs that collectively manage IP addresses for the global Internet, and its region consists of Canada, the United States, and parts of the Caribbean (the other four RIRs serve Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Europe and the Middle East).
ARIN allocates IP address space to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who reassign space to their customers, organizations as well as end-users.. In the ARIN region, we expect to run out of IPv4 addresses for new Internet growth within the next year or so. After ARIN runs out of available IPv4 addresses, we will only be distributing IPv6 addresses. Organizations can keep track of ARIN’s IPv4 inventory via our IPv4 Inventory & IPv4 Depletion / Countdown Plan.
In the light of IPv4 address space depletion, the good news is that ARIN and the other RIRs have plenty of IPv6 address space, and it’s easy to request and receive IPv6 address space regardless of your region. Your business can request IPv6 address space in accordance with the policies in your region. Businesses in the ARIN region may wish to refer to our community-developed Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM). Many organizations already have requested and obtained their IPv6 address space, and globally IPv6 adoption is now on the rise.
IPv6 Addressing for a Competitive Advantage
IPv6 is not only essential for the growth of a robust global Internet, but also for ensuring direct connections with customers. This is a key driver behind several IPv6 address space requests within the ARIN region and around the world. As IPv4 depletion occurs, service providers will be increasingly making use of IPv6 to connect new customers to the Internet. Customers connected via IPv6 are able to directly connect to IPv6 websites but must go through translation technologies to access legacy web sites. This creates a transition period in which businesses must operate on both IPv4 and IPv6 networks to reach customers on the entire Internet, in order to prevent web services performance and appearance issues.
Customers attempting to reach an IPv4-only web service via an IPv6-enabled smartphone or tablet are likely to see slower connections and services, which could impact on corporate bottom lines, as customers turn to quicker competing services.
For several years to come, a transition phase will occur in which customers devices may be connected to the Internet via either IPv4 or IPv6. That means public facing websites, mail, web, and application servers should also be reachable via IPv6 in addition to IPv4, to allow businesses to continue reaching all customers, regardless of how individual users are connected to the Internet.
Ultimately, to remain competitive in the marketplace, businesses must update all external facing systems to support IPv6 – and that starts with deploying IPv6 adoption strategies today. This will ensure that these businesses will not experience growth difficulties later, and will be able to serve new customerswithout any risk of loss of revenue and customer loyalty.
Deploying IPv6 may seem like a daunting task for some businesses, but with careful planning, your IPv6 transition period can be a smooth process. A successful IPv6 migration requires configuration of your network to carry IPv6 traffic. Additionally it requires hardware and software that supports IPv6 too, with some staff training on how to implement the new protocol. Business beginning to prepare for IPv6 now will be those that will gain a competitive edge against their counterparts who do not.
Economic and Business Implications of IPv6
On June 6, 2012, thousands of technology companies and Internet providers around the world, including Google, Comcast, Facebook, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable and the Internet Society, upgraded their public infrastructure to support IPv6 during an event called “World IPv6 Launch Day”. This day, which marked a significant date in the 40-year history of the Internet – IPv6 will undoubtedly shape the future of the Internet’s underlying infrastructure.
IPv6 will allow the Internet to continue to foster creativity, community and economic growth. Businesses and consumers need to pay very close attention to this issue, and be aware that the transition to IPv6 is key to the future health and growth of a robust global Internet.
For organizations that are unsure where to begin with their IPv6 transition, there are many good free online resources including ARIN’s IPv6 Info Center and IPv6 Wiki. ???
Is this unfinished??? (Thank God that there’s no more of this drivel!)
