Yesterday, the authors of the new book, “Global IPv6 Strategies”, a book by Cisco Press, conducted a live webinar facilitated by Network World. You can find the transcript of the exchange here. I feel very fortunate to know all of the speakers, and to have worked with them in industry, assist them in their IPv6 integration efforts, and be a contributor to the book. The book focuses on the business ramifications of IPv6 adoption rather than the technical aspects – a real first for any major publication around IPv6.

The entire transcript is worth a read for sure. Each of the authors brings a unique and experienced perspective to IPv6 integration. However, one comment from Fred Wettling, a Bechtel Fellow who has been the primary driver behind Bechtel’s integration efforts, is worth a little extra focus.

IPv4 address exhaustion has been a primary driver for IPv6 adoption from the first day – it is what started the protocol development process in the first place. Despite a continued and steady march towards a v4 “doomsday” – IPv6 adoption has not really kept pace. Why is that? In my own experience, it stems from a continued lack of understanding about IPv6 and what it brings to the network. Fred Wettling summarized it well in the webinar:

“From the perspective of the person that has led enterprise IPv6 implementation in a major international company, the strategic benefits are becoming clear, especially where mobility, peer discovery, infrastructure management and end-to-end communications (without the application headaches of NAT traversal) are important. Chapter 5 of Global IPv6 Strategies has several real-life use cases that might interest you.”

IPv6 is really about so much more than address space. It is the only current, plausible basis for a more scalable, mobility friendly, efficient, and transparent network environment. As such, it is worth the effort to learn more.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under IPv4 Exhaustion, IPv6 Benefits, IPv6 Integration . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.