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  5. The IPocalypse Is Not A Cause For Panic: Page 2 of 2
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The IPocalypse Is Not A Cause For Panic: Page 2 of 2

Today, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ( IANA) will be passing out the last five Class A address spaces to the Regional Internet Registries (RIR), which in turn allocate IP addresses to organizations within their specific geographic regions. This marks the end of the IPv4 central pool, and the countdown to IPv4 exhaustion begins in earnest. The American Registry of Internet Numbers (ARIN)--which handles allocations for Canada, the United States and many Caribbean islands--is forecasting
February 03, 2011

On the server side, new services that are IPv6-only won't be able to rely on the client side of the connection to perform IPv4-to-IPv6 translation since it will take time for service providers to bring up translation services. Running your own translation gateway ensures that users, whether on IPv4 or IPv6 networks, will be able to reach you, but you may loose valuable tracking information. And the translation gateway becomes a potential bottle neck.

Whether you are a large, multinational enterprise or a small to midsize business, you will have to migrate to IPv6. The migration will take time as existing network devices like application servers, printers, network cameras, VoIP phones--anything IP connected--is upgraded to support IPv6. If you start planning now to ensure that IT equipment and services are either supporting IPv6 or that your vendors have a well-defined IPv6 support roadmap ready, you can ensure the inevitable transition will be smooth.

You can read more about IPv6 with Network Computing Pro Reports Strategy Session: IPv6 [subscription required].

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