  | Issue: | Asia-Pacific III 2013 |
| Article no.: | 1 | |
| Topic: | Understanding the current state of enterprise IPv6 adoption | |
| Author: | Roy Illsley & Mike Sapien | |
| Title: | Principal Analysts | |
| Organisation: | Ovum | |
| PDF size: | 267KB |
About author
Mike Sapien, Principal Analyst, is responsible for Ovum’s US Enterprise Practice. Based in southern California, Mike leads the design, development, and implementation of Ovum’s research and advisory services on enterprise network services and managed solutions in North America with a major emphasis on the tier 1 carriers, infrastructure vendors and providers. Mike works directly with clients to help them understand and implement recommended strategies from Ovum research. Mike has over 27 years in the telecoms and internet services industry including executive positions at large carriers, CLEC, and a data center provider. His expertise includes the development, introduction, and marketing of data and voice services such as Centrex, DSL, ISDN, and SMB integrated bundles, and he was one of the first published authors to write about ISDN applications for IT personnel (Mastering ISDN by Sybex – 1997).
Mike is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University (BBA & MBA) and Columbia University executive management program.
Roy Illsley, Principal Analyst, Ovum has more than 23 years of IT experience in several industries, ranging from defence, utilities, automotive, retail, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries. He is recognised as Ovum’s expert on virtualization and infrastructure management. He also has experience of cloud computing, data centre technologies, and IT strategy and policy. Since he joined Ovum in January 2006, he has worked on major report projects including document collaboration, IT governance, SOA platforms, IT strategy and architecture. . He was appointed the supply chain and manufacturing lead IT analyst for a proposed £2.9 billion company merger, IT architect of a major RFID project, and IT project manager for a major new financial reporting and business change initiative. Roy has delivered keynote speeches at strategy briefings, strategy forums, and webinars, and led Master Classes on virtualization and cloud computing.
He has a BSc (Hons) in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications, an MBA, and is a Member of the Institute of Engineering Technology (MIET) holding the registered status of a Chartered Engineer (CEng).
Article abstract
IPv6 migration is ‘always a bridesmaid – never a bride’ sort of project. A 2013 survey shows that not one surveyed enterprise has completed the migration and most are a third to two-thirds of the way. Enterprises just don’t see IPv4 address shortage that might create immediate urgency, but it is expected that demand will arise by 2015, driven by increasing numbers of mobile devices, growing mobile access and cloud service adoption. The survey shows that the most common enterprise approach is driven by the risk of losing customers, leading to a partial migration. Global businesses have higher incentive to upgrade. Another approach is piecemeal migration, when equipment reaches end-of-life. With the lack of business case, enterprises must leverage any major upgrade to ICT infrastructure to prepare for IPv6.
Full Article
INTRODUCTION
Content Providers are not interested in further activities to promote the enterprises’ adoption of IPv6
For more than 10 years now, the industry at large has been promoting and sponsoring the move from IPv4 to IPv6 Internet Protocol standard. In the past three years, this effort has substantially increased and has included major service network, internet and content providers, most of which have generated and implemented IPv4-to-IPv6 interwork techniques for their customers, creating a cushion that enables customers to delay the move to IPv6. The Internet Society did not hold another IPv6 Day in 2013 which seems to indicate that network, Internet, and content providers are satisfied with the current progress and are not interested in further activities to promote the enterprises’ adoption of IPv6 faster. IPv6 implementation continues to be an important project for enterprise customers, but it still doesn’t have the necessary compelling business-case for it to be prioritized at the top and get fully funded. Therefore, unless there is a significant business trigger, the move to IPv6 remains an unfunded project for most enterprises.
The IPv6 project within most large enterprise customers has another 2 to 3 years remaining
The Ovum IPv6 enterprise survey was conducted in early 2013 to understand the speed of IPv6 adoption by end-user organizations. While the survey was not a large sample size, it was a targeted survey of selected enterprises that were representative. The results showed that these large enterprises, 66% of those who have started an IPv6 project, are less than 30% complete, while 33% reported being more than 30%, but less than 60% complete. This meant that not one enterprise surveyed has completed an IPv6 migration project in its entirety. Ovum considers that this is representative of the market, with the survey showing that 60% of all respondents have begun an IPv6 project or planned for a project, and a further 20% expecting to start the project this year. The remaining respondents were split between no plans or waiting a two-to-three-year timescale to start its IPv6 project.
The general consensus from respondents that had done at least some planning for IPv6 was that an IPv6 project was between four and six years in length. All respondents who were part way through the project reported at least two years of project work remaining. The other finding from the research was that it was mainly global organizations that were the most advanced in terms of any IPv6 project.
ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS IDENTIFY BUDGET AS A MAJOR RESTRAINING FORCE WHILE BENEFITS REMAIN ELUSIVE
Country and market-specific regulation is driving some IPv6 migration
In some countries and vertical markets, IPv6 implementation has been mandated. One of the vertical examples is in financial services where IPv6 addressing has become a requirement for many financial institutions. Many enterprise customers want to make sure that their end user customers can access their web resources. B2C applications are common driver for IPv6 projects. Mobility and access by mobile devices are also common catalyst as more and more consumers use mobile devices to access web resources for service.
Governments have been leading the charge to implement IPv6 and have been promoting or mandating it since the early 2000s. In Europe and the US, this includes mandates by government agencies to implement IPv6 for public access to web services and also made it a requirement for government tenders and agency services contracts.
Clearly, the use of IPv6 for public access to government information and services will mean that this sector will complete IPv6 implementation first, and that allowing mobile access to these services will speed up the pace of implementation.
The business case for IPv6 is not compelling enough for many organizations to raise its priority or funding
Ovum expects the lack of a business case to stall implementation for many years. The lack of a business case (or inability to identify sufficient benefits to support a business case) is the major reason for the lack of IPv6 planning and deployment. The customer sampling was predominantly US and European customers, so it seems to be common across these two regions, but many had global requirements. However, Asia-Pacific customers are clearly moving more quickly, for a number of reasons (including regulation) that are unique to the region. This region will also be the first to completely run out of IPv4 addresses. In general, most customers see this as a project that always stays in the list of priorities but doesn’t seem to rise to the top and gain approval for funding.
Address space concerns and problems
Although the lack of sufficient IPv4 address space was one of the initial catalysts for many companies to consider the migration to IPv6, it has not so far been a compelling motivator. Customers talked of the impending IPv4 address shortage, but it was still not perceived as a major threat. In most cases, enterprises believe that they have enough IPv4 addresses, have IPv4 addressing techniques (NAT translation), or their provider’s interwork provisions (e.g. dual stack implementation) to handle IPv6. Enterprises just don’t see any immediate address space shortage that might create an urgency to move to IPv6. Ovum believes that the network service providers (NSPs) and ISPs have created this cushion for the customers that allow them more time to stall and plan for IPv6.
Faster-moving enterprises are the exception
There are exceptions where enterprise customers have completed the planning, started the implementation, and have a fixed timeframe for completion. Customer-facing resources are one factor pushing many of the early adopters to implement IPv6 now. Ovum expects this to continue for the next few years, with some real urgency arising in 2015, driven by the increasing numbers of mobile devices, growing mobile access, cloud service adoption and yes, addresses finally running short.
LOW BUSINESS AWARENESS OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IPV6
Few organizations believe that IPv6 is impacting business operations
For many line-of-business leaders, the transition to an IPv6 environment appears to be a very technical debate that is divorced from the business operations. Ovum’s survey identified three key areas that CIOs should focus on to discuss IPv6 with the business:
– Does the business have any external-facing components that its customers need to access? For most businesses this is certainly the case, whether it is an order-taking website, customer portal, or an online game.
– Does the business operate in a market where customer access to content is the main source of revenue?
– If the business is expanding globally and its business requires new IP addresses, then once the IPv4 pool is exhausted, growth will only happen in IPv6.
In these circumstances IPv6 should be a priority, and this should be an easy sell to line-of-business leaders.
Enterprise projects and movement to IPv6 will happen at normal pace as ICT technology changes. Ovum believes that most IPv6 migration will happen as part of three common scenarios within the enterprise. The first scenario is that IPv6 migration will occur as hardware and software reach end-of-life and is due to be replaced. This approach is a piecemeal way to address the IPv6 project and is typically done where no business case has been made, but there is recognition that IPv6 capabilities are needed for future business growth. The second scenario is that of a detailed plan for the entire business to migrate to IPv6, aligned with the business risk of not being IPv6 capable. This approach is being used in markets where regulation and government (e.g. India) advice promote the support of IPv6. The final scenario is where only part of the network, such as public-facing access and resources, is IPv6-enabled. The survey results show that this is the most common approach currently driven by the risk of losing customers who are trying to access services from IPv6 devices.
Factors to watch for that might trigger adoption
IPv6 migration can be driven by many factors including the common threat of IPv4 address shortages but this might not be the first trigger to start the migration to IPv6 by most enterprises. It might be customer-facing resources (websites, customer portals), but it might also be service partners or suppliers that need to communicate with your company. It could also be a regulatory mandate in a key country where you have large business opportunities that require IPv6 compatibility. Network and Internet providers are now providing some IPv4-to-IPv6 interworking services, and if they change their policy or require native IPv6 interfaces, this will also require the move to IPv6. Doing business in Asia-Pacific or having suppliers in this region may also require a faster move to IPv6.
Enterprises will need to leverage any major upgrade to ICT infrastructure to spread the cost over different projects and amortize the cost over time. This will also provide the added benefit of sharing the costs among other related projects that will eventually make the final IPv6 migration efforts easy to fund.
