Why IPv6? It is a valid question in many ways …

One may say, “We have plenty of addresses! We could probably sell a Class B back to ARIN or the highest bidder.”

Or some may say, “We can’t wait, how do we get moving with IPv6?”

Regardless, of which side of the pendulum you may land on, the IPv4 pool of addresses is facing total depletion in the next few years. Actually many of the models place the critical date in the 2009-2011 time frame.

Again, if we run out of IPv4 addresses, it may not be a big deal to your company. However, what if your customers are on the IPv6 Internet?

The United States invented and built the Internet. Over 80% of the IPv4 addresses have been allocated in North America. Therefore, other areas such as Europe and the Pacific Rim, had little choice, other than to embrace IPv6.

The United States is making great strides with IPv6. The President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has directed agencies to transition their backbones to IPv6 by June of 2008. This will start the effort, much like the early days of the Internet. However, would the Internet have been this successful if the US Government was the only user?

Also, consider the economics of a transition to IPv6. Would you rather have a flat spending curve with perhaps a slight increase, as you methodically enable IPv6? Or … would you chance a spending curve similar to the Y2K experience?