Could a U.S. Shift to IPv6 Cost $75B?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: December 13, 2005 8:55:28 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Could a U.S. Shift to IPv6 Cost $75B?
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

Could a U.S. Shift to IPv6 Cost $75B?
By Sean Michael Kerner
December 12, 2005
<http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3570211>
Moving to IPv6 will present a number of challenges for the U.S.  
federal government, not the least of which is the associated price  
tag, which could hit $75 billion.

A new 63-page report issued late last week by the IPv6 Summit and  
Juniper Networks offers U.S. federal agencies a bevy of suggestions  
on how best to go about transitioning to IPv6.

The government is supposed to be on a relatively rapid path toward  
IPv6 migration since the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  
mandated (PDF file) this past August that the federal government move  
to IPv6 by June 2008.

Last week's report, titled "IPv6 Best Practices World Report Series:  
Guide for Federal Agencies Transitioning to IPv6," recommends that  
federal agencies develop a business case for moving to IPv6,  
centralize their migration tactics and define metrics to help track  
transition progress.

IPv6 is a new communications paradigm that requires a different  
approach.

"Reliance on past concepts will prohibit the realization of new IPv6  
capabilities," the report notes. Federal agencies should develop  
organizational measures of effectiveness that relate the technical  
features of IPv6 milestones and the business strategy.

"Can IPv6 aid in achieving the organization's strategic vision and  
mission?" the report asks. "The answer is 'yes' if agencies  
understand its potential and the new communications paradigm it  
creates."

It is also recommended that agencies look at IPv6 as a convergence  
technology as much as a networking technology.

In terms of infrastructure for IPv6, the deployment of IPv6-capable  
DNS services is noted to be one of the first infrastructure  
components that should be undertaken as part of a deployment plan.

The report recommends BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) version 9  
or higher, because it supports IPv6 AAAA records, DNS Security  
(DNSsec) and Secret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS.

Technology isn't the greatest challenge of moving to IPv6, though.

"The technology challenge was not really as great as the planning,"  
Dale Geesey, one of the authors of the report, told internetnews.com.  
When one takes care of the planning, the technology becomes much  
easier."

Lou Ann Brossman, director of federal marketing for Juniper Networks  
said that there are no surprises in the report.

[snip]

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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