IPv6 Transition: Ready or Not?

Remember the rush to prepare for Y2K? Well, there’s a similar imperative for customers to prepare for the transition to IPv6 as the number of IPv4 addresses diminishes as we near 2011.

What’s driving this? The increasing number of devices and the fact that more and more emerging countries are connecting to the Internet and requiring IP addresses.

If you take a look at the IP addresses throughout the world today (see image of the world with primarily N. America and Europe, Japan, Australia "lit" up) you can imagine the impending shortage as emerging countries eventually do get connected.

Take a listen to Cisco CTO wireless, security and access routing Pat Calhoun as he provides the highlights of a customer panel he hosted last week on the successes and challenges of transitioning to IPv6. Customer panelists represented the following organizations:

• Google
• The European Commission (representative responsible for developing IPv6 regulations)
• free (second largest broadband ISP in France)
• SpaceNet (SP from Germany)
• ARCH ROCK (pioneer of IPv6 wireless sensors)
• TATA (large global IPv6 provider)