What Should an Engineer Address when 'Selling' IPv6 to Executives?

Tue Mar 5 18:47:17 UTC 2013

On Mar 05, 2013, at 13:41 , Cameron Byrne <cb.list6 at gmail.com> wrote:

> In-line

Isn't every reply? (Well, every reply worth reading.)

> On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Mukom Akong T. <mukom.tamon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear experts,
>> 
>> I've found myself thinking about what ground an engineer needs to cover in
>> order to convince the executives to approve and commit to an IPv6
>> Deployment project.

Why not just have them read their own SEC filings. Nearly every company has something to the effect of this in their 10K:
	The potential exhaustion of the supply of unallocated IPv4 addresses
	and the inability of $COMPANY and other Internet users to successfully 
	transition to IPv6 could harm our operations and the functioning of 
	the Internet as a whole.

No company would lie to the SEC, would it?

-- 
TTFN,
patrick

>> I think such a presentation (15 slides max in 45 minutes) should cover the
>> following aspects:
>> 
>> a) Set the strategic context: how your organisation derives value from IP
>> networks and the Internet.
>> 
>> b) Overview of the problem: IPv4 exhaustion
>> 
>> c) Implications of IPv4 Exhaustion to your organization’s business model.
>> 
>> d) Introduction of IPv6 as a solution to IPv4 exhaustion.
>> 
>> e) Understanding the risks involved.
>> 
>> f) How much will deploying IPv6 will cost.
>> 
>> g) Call to action.
>> 
>> I've detailed my thinking into each of these items at <How to ‘Sell’ IPv6
>> to Executive Management – Guidance for
>> Engineers<http://techxcellence.net/2013/03/05/v6-business-case-for-engineers/>
>>> 
>> 
>> My question and this is where I'd appreciate some input:
>> 
>> a) To all you engineers out there who have convinced managers - what else
>> did you have to address?
>> 
> 
> One of the most important things i see not being stressed enough is
> that IPv6 is frequently free or a low-cost incremental upgrade.
> 
> So, when calculating ROI / NPV, the hurdle can be very low such that
> the cash in-flow / cost savings is not a huge factor since the
> required investment is close to nil.
> 
> This is not always the case, some legacy stuff won't work on ipv6
> without investment.  But, as a plug to all you folks who work at
> companies that use a CDN, please ask your CDN to turn IPv6 on for your
> website.  This is top-of-mind for me since i just pushed my www folks
> on this issue
> 
> 
> Here's some relevant pointers for the CDN folks, in many cases its
> just a matter of clicking a button in the management portal:
> 
> Akamai http://www.akamai.com/ipv6
> 
> Edgecast http://www.edgecast.com/ipv6/
> 
> Cloudflare https://www.cloudflare.com/ipv6
> 
> Amazon http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2011/05/24/elb-ipv6-zoneapex-securitygroups/
> 
> Softlayer http://www.softlayer.com/about/network/ipv6
> 
> 
>> b) To you who are managers, what else do you need your engineers to address
>> in order for you to be convinced?
>> 
>> Regards.
>> 
>> As always, all opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent
>> the views of my employers, past or present.
>> 
>> --
>> 
>> Mukom Akong T.
>> 
>> http://about.me/perfexcellence |  twitter: @perfexcellent
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> “When you work, you are the FLUTE through whose lungs the whispering of the
>> hours turns to MUSIC" - Kahlil Gibran
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>> 
>> Mukom Akong T.
>> 
>> http://about.me/perfexcellence |  twitter: @perfexcellent
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> “When you work, you are the FLUTE through whose lungs the whispering of the
>> hours turns to MUSIC" - Kahlil Gibran
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 