Absolutely. However, the discussion has been quite fascinating, and this quote from Dan Foster on the SAGE list is interesting - mostly because once the IPV4 space is close to exhaustion (for some value of 'close') there will probably be parts of the Internet that can't talk with each other, because IPv4 and IPv6 don't interoperate. How important that is to any particular set of people depends, of course, on the situation at hand. But, for instance, I know that China is getting pretty aggressive in rolling out IPv6, and if your org wants to work in China, it might behoove you to start getting ready. The sky isn't falling, but IMHO the ceiling is starting to get a bit closer.
----------Begin Dan Foster Quote---------- It's becoming more critical now because the IANA is almost out of /8 allocatable IPv4 netblocks. From my understanding, there are currently 24 allocatable /8 blocks (out of a maximum of 256). Current forecast has it that the IANA will run out of these blocks by sometime later this year and then the five RIRs (regional IP registries -- ARIN, RIPE NCC, APNIC, AfriNIC, LACNIC) may run out of allocations from the remaining blocks by sometime next year (within the first half). So from a high level POV, ~90% of IPv4 address space has been allocated. My understanding is that once IANA is down to the final five /8 blocks, they will be giving out a single /8 to each RIR with the understanding that this block be mostly used to assist in an IPv4-to-IPv6 transition. Once the remaining stash has been allocated to the RIRs, it will be up to individual ISPs to either aggressively enforce downstream NAT'ing or to actively move customers to IPv6. IPv4 address space exhaustion is ever the moving target, but wouldn't be a bad idea for people in the trenches to become familiar with v6 so that if it's sprung upon them, the answer is a quick and confident "sure, no problem", which tends to be career-enhancing. :-) ----------End Dan Foster Quote---------- Kurt On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 10:49, Jay Dale <[email protected]> wrote: > Haven't they been talking about this for the past 10 years or so? > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kurt Buff [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 12:44 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: IPv6 > > I'm following an interesting conversation on the SAGE list regarding > the worsening shortage of IPv4 addresses, and the need to plan for > IPv6 transition. > > Have any of you worked on a plan, or even fully or partially > implemented, IPv6 in your environments? If so, do you have any wisdom > to share? > > Beyond knowing that it exists, and is supposed to replace IPv4, I have > no real world knowledge or experience with it, and was wondering what > kind of mind share the issue has with this community. > > Kurt > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
