Report: United States falling behind in IPv6 migration
While IPv6 migration is key for many purposes beyond overcoming IPv4 exhaustion, the United States is falling behind in the process.
By Donna DonnowitzOctober 19, 2011
Many businesses in the United States have devoted substantial resources to network address translation and other technologies that extend the lifecycle of IPv4 addresses. While this is beneficial in terms of maintaining efficient IPv4 networks, it is slowing the critical transition to IPv6. According to a Technorati report, businesses and service providers in the United States have fallen behind in IPv6 adoption.
This lackluster performance when it comes to adjusting to the new protocol could pose major problems for organizations throughout the country because the internet is changing and IPv6 has become critical, the report said. On the core level of IPv4 address exhaustion, the need for IPv6 is clear. Each device needs access to an IP address to connect to a network. As a result, the dwindling number of IPv4 addresses makes the transition to IPv6 an important one.
However, the lack of new IPv4 addresses is not the only motivating point behind IPv6 migration. As the internet grows and changes, more technologies, including home automation, virtualization and advanced mobile devices are creating an environment where a growing number of objects are connecting to the internet, according to the news source. The diverse range of devices now included in networks makes robust IP infrastructure integral to supporting management and efficient operations. Migration to IPv6 is necessary to enable these capabilities, making migration key even though businesses could find ways to support IPv4 for an extended period of time.
While it is clear that many advanced network capabilities are unlocked when IPv6 is deployed, the problem is that the new protocol is not compatible with IPv4. The report explained this issue puts investors in a difficult situation, as they have the opportunity to systematically upgrade the network to support the new protocol, but must do so in a creative and innovative manner to ensure the enhancements are accomplished while still supporting IPv4.
The data center industry is one of the major technology industry sectors benefiting substantially from the transition to IPv6. While the protocol creates many challenges in terms of migrating a data center environment, it also offers a number of key performance and monitoring advantages that are ideal for such environments, according to a recent Data Center Knowledge report.
This lackluster performance when it comes to adjusting to the new protocol could pose major problems for organizations throughout the country because the internet is changing and IPv6 has become critical, the report said. On the core level of IPv4 address exhaustion, the need for IPv6 is clear. Each device needs access to an IP address to connect to a network. As a result, the dwindling number of IPv4 addresses makes the transition to IPv6 an important one.
However, the lack of new IPv4 addresses is not the only motivating point behind IPv6 migration. As the internet grows and changes, more technologies, including home automation, virtualization and advanced mobile devices are creating an environment where a growing number of objects are connecting to the internet, according to the news source. The diverse range of devices now included in networks makes robust IP infrastructure integral to supporting management and efficient operations. Migration to IPv6 is necessary to enable these capabilities, making migration key even though businesses could find ways to support IPv4 for an extended period of time.
While it is clear that many advanced network capabilities are unlocked when IPv6 is deployed, the problem is that the new protocol is not compatible with IPv4. The report explained this issue puts investors in a difficult situation, as they have the opportunity to systematically upgrade the network to support the new protocol, but must do so in a creative and innovative manner to ensure the enhancements are accomplished while still supporting IPv4.
The data center industry is one of the major technology industry sectors benefiting substantially from the transition to IPv6. While the protocol creates many challenges in terms of migrating a data center environment, it also offers a number of key performance and monitoring advantages that are ideal for such environments, according to a recent Data Center Knowledge report.
