Is it time to switch to IPv6?

With ever-growing numbers of businesses and users, quite simply the internet is running out of Internet Protocol addresses with which to create new website domains.

With the problem compounded by the need for IP addresses for mobile phone users, the twenty year-old IPv4 system allocating IP addresses is showing the strain. IPv6 is the newest version of the Internet Protocol offering space for longer addresses and increasing the number of available IP addresses from 4 billion to a staggering trillion trillion.

According to the latest IPv6 Deployment Monitoring Survey sponsored by the European Commission, not enough businesses are switching over to IPv6. The survey, which included 610 respondents from 54 countries, revealed that only 17 per cent of companies are making use of IPv6.

The position has only marginally improved since ARIN’s survey in March 2008 with businesses remaining uncertain about the benefits of switching over. Of those businesses that weren’t considering switching to IPv6, almost 70 per cent couldn’t understand the need for change.

The survey also revealed that 92 per cent of ISPs are not using IPv6 and are themselves unsure about whether to promote IPv6 uptake to their customers.

Why switch to IPv6?

So why should businesses change over to IPv6? Even RIPE’s “IPv6 Act Now” site only warns us that “failure to adopt these new resources could mean a slowing in the pace of internet innovation” which isn’t something most businesses are likely to worry about.

IPv4 addresses are likely to continue working long after all the available addresses run out, so the problem itself is only likely to affect new businesses or current businesses looking to expand their web presence.

That said, a change to IPv6 seems inevitable. Cisco’s view is that “every customer in the market will face the inevitable transition from IPv4 to IPv6.”

As such, the change to IPv6 will eventually be forced upon businesses as demand for IP addresses exceeds supply along with the associated costs of retraining staff, enhancing management tools, routers and operating or deploying IPv6-enabled versions of applications.

Microsoft have already built support for IPv6 into Windows from XP to 7, so it really boils down to a question of whether to change over to IPv6 sooner or later?

What are the advantages of switching?

Besides the capacity to have longer IP addresses - 128 bits instead of the current 32 - which might prove beneficial for various web apps, IPv6 offers tougher security thanks to the core feature of IP(Sec) which secures B2B data flows using AES and Triple-DES encryption.

IP(Sec) also offers strong authentication with a header extension that checks each data packet comes from the source address it claims and makes use of cryptographic keys to establish a session between computers or servers.

Besides better security, IPv6 also comes with auto-configuration, with IPv6 hosts detecting the presence of local networks and routers automatically potentially saving businesses money in terms of IP and network management. Auto-configuration will also aid wireless mobile devices in connecting when travelling and discovering foreign networks.

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