IP4 Space

Owen DeLong owen at delong.com
Thu Mar 11 00:57:33 UTC 2010


>
> IMHO, only personally experienced pain is going to push a lot of these
> sorts of people into ipv6.  By pain, I mean things such as not being
> able to deploy their new service (web site, email server, VPN box,
> whatever) on the internet due to lack of ipv4 addresses, having to
> implement double NAT, CGN/LSN, or being forced to live behind such an
> arrangement ["what do you mean I can't port forward the port for my
> favorite game/new service?!?!" (yes, I know some schemes will still
> allow customer port forwards, but this will be made more difficult,
> painful, since many users will now be sharing the same publics.)]
>
> Once the "pain" hits, many will be doing crash courses in ipv6 and
> rolling it out as quickly as they can.  I think it's just human  
> nature.  :)
>
> - Jim
>
>
Yep...

We all know you can't get an ostrich's head out of the sand with
a shovel.

Having said that, I do think we have other tools besides shovels
at our disposal.

I try to avoid being preachy, but, at the same time, there are some
pretty hard numbers available. It's not the guys on IRC that need
the most convincing anyway.  They know, and in many cases,
while they're still in denial, they don't need to change because
they couldn't get support from above if they did.

The target really needs to be the CxOs and the management,
especially in places where there is content facing the general
public.  Fortunately, Google, Yahoo, Netflix, etc. get it and have
moved forward with IPv6. Some others are coming along.

I just prodded the IT department at Wells Fargo today while
working on troubleshooting an IPv4-based email problem
asking them why my messages weren't reaching them over
IPv6 as well.

The main thing we need to convey to our colleagues in the IRC
crowd is that IPv6 really isn't as difficult as some have made
it out to be.  While it does require some different thinking, mostly
in the area of address planning, the rest of it is pretty much
business as usual just like IPv4.

The other hurdle I've encountered is fear about "switching" to
IPv6. We need to be clear that we aren't "switching" to IPv6,
we're "adding IPv6 capabilities to the existing IPv4 network".
The former creates a lot more fear of change than the latter.

Owen

(Oh, and in case anyone doesn't know, yes, I work for Hurricane
Electric. I went to work there because I liked what they were doing
with IPv6. I'd recommend their products (and did) even if I did not
work there.)




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