H E L P Pittsburgh

IPv6 - Be afraid, be very afraid

Well, don't be afraid of IPv6, but be afraid of what will happen to your company and our country if we don't get better prepared for this new Internet paradigm.

Quick primer - today we all use the Internet under IPv4, which has worked well, but is rapidly running out of room. You see its the protocol that controls Internet addresses. It was proposed and adopted 30 years ago as an experiment, but it became the standard with, unfortunately, not enough room to grow. Although 4.3 billion seems like a lot of addresses, it ain't! Not near enough.

However, with IPv6, the addresses get so bountiful that every person on the earth could have their own 50 octillion IP addresses. Why would we possibly want this abundance? Because where we are rapidly heading is a place where every computer, cell phone, appliance, vehicle, RFID chip, etc., has it's own, unique IP address. Believe it or not, this is a good thing, as it will enable us to do "magical" things and will make it MUCH easier to secure your data.

OK, so back to being afraid. Seems the US is seriously lagging in our approach to and adoption of this exploding technology, but NOT the Chinese. The cover story in this month's CIO magazine, China Builds a better Internet, really opened my eyes to this. The Chinese (along with the Japanese and Koreans) have mounted huge offensives to colonize the IPv6 space and shift control of the Internet away from the US.

As you read this article you see that our underlying infrastructure (hardware, operating system software, communications) is being converted, BUT the new technology has not been implemented by anyone. Even the Federal Government, with the possible exception of DOD, is lagging in shifting to this new opportunity.

I know many of you are thinking, "This doesn't effect me." Oh, but it does! The Internet, like it or not, is being inextricably woven into the fabric of our lives. There are actually Internet enabled clothes being tried out, so that is a literal statement.

You might want to check out the state of your technology infrastructure. Is it IPv6 capable? Does your software understand (and more importantly) take advantage of IPv6?

Some in Congress are trying to institute action to make sure the US doesn't lose it's lead in the Internet. So, when you hear about some obscure legislation promoting IPv6, be sure to let your representatives know that you support it!

Technorati Tags: IPv6 CIO

posted by HELP @ 8:36 AM