The missing link between IPv6 adoption and innovation

This is the second post of a five part series based on an interview with Latif Ladid, president of the IPv6 Forum, discussing the enterprise challenges and issues relating to enterprise deployment including: pain points, security, best practices and future predictions. 

For technology decision makers and network managers, it can be a challenge getting sufficient buy-in from the business side when it comes to implementing new technologies. This is no exception when it comes to IPv6.

“We are run by business people who don’t know how things are run in the back office,” says Ladid. These corporation heads can be extremely bottom-line oriented — making it a challenging task for network managers to get the business side aboard the IPv6 train.

But from a manager point of view, if you want to be a winner, this is the moment to ensure your network investment is foolproof, Ladid says, adding that moving from IPv4 to IPv6 does indeed pose challenges for organizations, but also opportunity. Simply put, it is about IPv6 readiness; today’s large-scale networks require more private address space than is available in IPv4. And as the world grows ever more reliant of mobile technologies, the IPv6’s virtually unlimited number of addresses allow greater agility and reduced network traffic by enabling devices to have unique IP addresses.

More IP addresses mean more innovation, says Ladid. IPv6 to a certain extent is a “clean slate” approach that can deliver greater functionality, automation and protocols that take into consideration that today’s Internet is largely mobile, he adds. “When you add an IP stack to these devices, you can do more with it.”

The pain or challenge of getting the business side onboard is about communicating a sense of urgency — not to mention appealing to the bottom line by focusing on the ultimate goal of greater agility and reduced networking costs.

Moving forward, IPv6 will be the central addressing linchpin of the Internet, Ladid says, and technologies such as RFC1918, NAT and VPNs simply won’t be enough in leveraging the Internet and network centric applications for a competitive advantage.

“There are many ways you can use the Internet that we are not currently able to do. This is about business continuity — people should not underestimate the power of the Internet today.”

Get more in-depth information by clicking the button below and reading “Planning the Transition to IPv6″ today.

Previous in this series: 
The IPv6 Forum president’s advice for Canadian network managers