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How To Act Now Small Business Enterprise ISP Government

How To Act Now

Axel Pawlik, Managing Director of the RIPE NCC

Axel Pawlik, Managing Director of the RIPE NCC


Today, the Internet faces a major challenge – as the older version of IP addresses (IPv4) run out, the newer version (IPv6) must be adopted to ensure that the Internet can continue to grow and develop. This adoption is something that will affect everyone who uses and relies on the Internet.

Why do you need to know? Because IPv4 and IPv6 do not talk directly to each other. This means that if your content and services are only available over IPv4 a potential customer using IPv6 will not be able to even access your website. To combat this problem, all organisations in both the public and private sector need to deploy IPv6 and run it alongside IPv4 (known as dual stacking).

Acting to deploy IPv6 now is the only way to ensure everyone can access your content, and the Internet can continue to grow.

Axel Pawlik

Every device linked to the Internet needs a unique number to enable it to connect with the rest of the devices on the network. These numbers, or Internet protocol (IP) addresses, are critical for the operation of the Internet.

Most devices connected to the Internet today run on Internet protocol version four (IPv4). However, due to the extraordinary growth of the Internet over the past decade we’re now running out of IPv4 addresses. It’s been estimated that the IPv4 address pool will be completely exhausted by 2011.

With this in mind, the technical community developed the next-generation of IP addresses, IPv6 in the mid-1990s. The many trillions of IPv6 addresses available will be enough to ensure that the growth and development of the Internet can continue.

Today, however, we face a major challenge – as the older IPv4 addresses run out, it is up to everyone in the Internet community to play their part in the global adoption of IPv6.

In order to continue to offer your customers the same level of service, you need to be planning IPv6 deployment now. Ask yourself:

  • Are you and your IT staff aware of IPv6?
  • Is your network IPv6 ready?
  • Have you considered IPv6-readiness in your upgrade cycle?

How To Act Now is a guide to the specific factors you need to be aware of and plan for. It is separated into four sections:

Each category looks at the specific issues faced by that sector, and provides information and advice to help you make decisions about the best path forward for deploying IPv6 in your organisation.