Ipv6 - Why Should You Care?

Odds are good that if you’re reading this article, you’re probably aware that Microsoft has released a new server and host operating system that will comes loaded with the IPv6 protocol stack pre-installed and ready to rock on your network. But did you know that since IPv6 will be the default routed protocol of choice, unless you uninstall it from your new servers and hosts, that IPv6 is what your network will run? And if it fails, your hosts will revert back to IPv4.
So, here’s the rub…if you don’t care about running IPv6 on your network, then just leave things alone, don’t play with it, and you won’t even know it’s there. If change, progress and innovation scares you, stop reading now. You’re all good staying in the IT Jurrassic period. But is maintaining today’s status quo really your best option? Read on and find out!
First, think about this… Any enterprise that does or will be doing business with Asia or the U.S. government should start using IPv6 ASAP! Why mention the US Government? Because the Office of Management and Budget Agencies (OMB) has migrate their network backbones to the IPv6 technology since June 2008—yes backbones, not hosts—but many agencies are going for it all the way to the desktop anyway. Oh, and plus, the FAA has moved their WAN’s to IPv6 in 2007, and all of their data centers in 2008. And I won’t even get started on the Department of Education—that’s a whole book in itself! For now, just know they’ll be running nothing but IPv6 within a few years.
So what do think now—are these good enough reasons to care about IPv6? If you’re still shaking your head, “no”, you’re not thinking this through. Envision the possibilities; the potential, and imagine the legions of job opportunities. Got it? Good. Now imagine all that plus the $25.4 billion budget from the OMB itself and ask yourself… Could this spawn a whole new humongous round of spending in the brave new world of IT? I’d say the odds are looking pretty darn good my friend!
Just so you know, the costs for implementing IPv6 will mostly be incurred because IPv6 is expected to coexist with IPv4, which means that administrators will have to manage both IPv4 and IPv6 types for quite some time. Labor costs will constitute the majority of the dollars spent upgrading to IPv6 for users, and training will gobble up a huge remainder of any labor related expenditures. What does all this mean? A whole new universe of opportunity for anyone working in IT, for IT training companies and IT instructors! It comes down to more work, more training, and it’s all going to happen over a long, long period of time. What more can you ask for? Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that you’re going to have to learn the new Windows 7 and Server 2008 Operating Systems as well—and get recertified.
Another big reason we’ll be adopting IPv6 into our corporate networks is because of its ability to offer a super smooth merging of voice, video and data (convergence) on a single network with access through a single device. I really don’t think a lot of people have made the connection of how fundamental IPv6 is to that. I say that because a lot of the people I talk to are pretty apathetic when the conversation turns to IPv6, and those who are interested in it seem to care only because of IPv6’s ability to provide greatly enhanced security benefits. And then there’s the paranoid bunch that acts as though IPv6 is the devil or something. (Why is it we seem to have this “kill the beast” reaction to anything that we just don’t understand?) Their reaction is so right out of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast! I’m not kidding—I’ve actually met people that say they’d rather totally retire from networking then work on IPv6! The common thread I see shared by all these groups is that none of them even get close to grasping the true powerhouse IPv6 really is when it comes to making our networks flow so very much more efficiently. But all that’s about shift dramatically. Though the wind of change may only be a slight breeze today, trust me—it’ll be gale force in about a year!
So, repeat after me: “IPv6 is my friend!”
Here’s the skinny: One of the many benefits of IPv6 isn’t just the nearly limitless number of IP addresses it makes available. The real beauty is that these addresses can and will be assigned to mobile devices like cell phones, personal digital assistants and a bunch of other toys we don’t even have yet that can be connected to the Internet. The group of devices we now call hosts will no longer just be all about PCs!
Okay—with this in mind, say the latest, greatest utra-cool, must-have techno-toy is IPv6 compatible only, and you have to be the one to tell everyone in your company the great news that they can’t run their glorious gizmo on your network because IPv6 is from the Abyss. That’ll fly right? You might get away with that for the next year or so, but soon, that news will go over about as well as telling people they can’t use wireless networks anymore. So if you’re an IT professional who’s really planning to not work with IPv6 ever, then it’s probably a good idea to also begin planning for retirement—and fast!