Toms article
Remember back in October 2010, when the Number Resource Organization (NRO) had made the prediction that Internet IPv4 addresses would be depleted by early 2011? It appears that they were spot on as the IANA ceremoniously on February 3rd allocated the final five blocks (also referred to as “/8s”) of IPv4 address space to the five RIR (Regional Internet Registries) communities.
This is by no means a small feat as IPv4 has been the cornerstone in carving the infrastructure of the Internet since its initial introduction back in 1981 when physicists in CERN (Switzerland) invented the Internet.
“This is an historic day in the history of the Internet, and one we have been anticipating for quite some time,” asserts Raúl Echeberría, chairman of the Number Resource Organization (NRO), the official representative of the five RIRs. “The future of the Internet is in IPv6. All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6.”
However, Echeberría stresses the imperative that the “(deployment of) IPv6 is now a requirement, not an option.”
So what does the migration of the IPv6 standard mean to us? Considering how connected the world is to the Internet today and onward, no longer merely by the traditional computer but now also via mobile devices, the IPv6 expands the pool from the once 4.3 billion unique IP addresses to an astounding 340 sextillion.
“Billions of people world wide use the Internet for everything from sending tweets to paying bills. The transition to IPv6 from IPv4 represents an opportunity for even more innovative applications without the fear of running out of essential Internet IP addresses,” states Elise Gerich, Vice President of IANA.
This is great news right? No, not great. At least not yet. Consequently, all older existing “products” (in a broad sense of the word) would either have to be IPv6-ready,” or be rendered useless in this new playing field. Additionally, the infrastructure in several countries would need to be updated to support the new IPv6 standard.
Are your products IPv6-ready? A helpful resource can be found here.
Number Resource Organization (NRO) -
I laugh every time I see this...Many of us have known that this was coming... looks like it's finally here...
