The IPv6 Business Case
By Silvia Hagen
Owner and CEO of Sunny Connection AG

Introduction

This article discusses what IPv6 means for your business. Should you invest in IPv6? If yes, when is a good time to do it? How can you plan for IPv6 in order to make your transition a smooth and cost-effective one?

Obviously, when you introduce IPv6 into a network, cost will initially rise. You have to educate your IT staff on IPv6, you have to build test beds that let you test IPv6 related issues, and you also have the costs of implementation.

And what is your return on investment? Why should you invest in IPv6, while you have a running IPv4 network? There are many heated discussions in this area, and it is important to ask the right questions in order to get meaningful answers.

There are some important facts that should be noted:

• IPv6 is inevitable in the long term.

• Supporting IPv6 will soon be a minimum requirement for hardware and application vendors.

• If you plan for IPv6 early you will save lots of money and many headaches.

This can be compared to any situation where you have to introduce a new technology into your network. What was the business case for introducing NAT? What was the business case for your whole IPv4-based infrastructure? What was the business case for upgrading servers to the latest version?

An infrastructure does not create a business case in itself. You need an infrastructure in order to be able to use and run applications and services which create a business case for your company. So you have to invest in your infrastructure, because you need a well developed and state-of-the-art infrastructure as a foundation for efficient business processes. You cannot use the newest and coolest applications, if your server runs an old-fashioned version of the operating system. You cannot use the newest and coolest applications and services that build on the advanced features of IPv6, while you are still running IPv4.

Our business processes and our private lives increasingly depend on connectivity and mobility. The demand for mobility has been growing explosively in the last years and will continue in that growth mode. Remember in the early nineties, when it was unimaginable that everyone would soon have a cell phone? Remember in the early eighties, when it was unimaginable that we would soon have a computer at every desk? Remember in the early sixties, when it was unimaginable that man would ever set his foot on the moon?

Evolution means that something is suddenly common, which was unimaginable a short time beforehand.

This is what is going to happen with IPv6. It feels new today -- perhaps you cannot imagine migrating your network to IPv6 yet. But tomorrow you will use it naturally, just like your cell phone. And the advanced services, applications and enhanced mobility that are based on IPv6 will create your business advantage!

When is it time for IPv6?

So the question is not whether you should consider IPv6 per se. IPv6 is a way-past-due upgrade to the existing Internet protocol The question is, when is the right time for you?

If the rest of the world is moving toward IPv6 and you remain on IPv4, the day will come when you will not really be in touch with your client needs any longer. You may either lose existing customer base due to this, or you may wish to greatly enhance your business with a new, critical application -- but it will only run with IPv6.

We do not recommend that every organization should jump on the IPv6 bandwagon today. What we do recommend is that you start to include IPv6 in your strategic planning and initiate some expertise internally in order to be able to determine the right moment for you to move on. And most importantly, put IPv6 support as an absolute requirement on your hard- and software shopping lists for any products that have a life cycle of more than two years. This will preserve your investments.

The golden rule still applies: don't fix what isn't broken. As long as your IPv4 infrastructure runs well and covers your current needs, let it run. But when your IPv4 infrastructure hits the limit for some reason and you need to make substantial investments in extending or fixing it, consider switching to IPv6 before you spend money on IPv4. Maintaining and extending an IPv4 infrastructure will become more and more expensive. Especially, stop building or extending NATs, which are killers, and should be avoided at all costs. NAT was a strategy to avoid a crisis (address depletion) and should not be considered as a long term strategy, as it does not solve the underlying problem -- it's just a quick fix. Any investment that you put into IPv6 will have better protection, because it is an investment into the New Internet protocol. Also, in the long term, maintaining and supporting an IPv6 infrastructure is less costly.

No flag day for IPv6!

There will be no flag day for IPv6, like there was for IPv4 in 1983. There will be no opportunity for everyone to switch our Internet to a new protocol over a weekend. So don't wait for a flag day, and don't wait for a killer application. Take the step by step approach, according to the above mentioned guidelines, and IPv6 will naturally be there the day you really need it. The step by step approach is also the most cost effective one. It does not disrupt your current infrastructure, it lets you learn sequentially and integrate that learning into your strategy. Remember: the longest journey begins with a single step.

If you would like to have some fun, visit our IPv6-only website at http://ipv6.sunny.ch. It can only be reached with an IPv6 stack. If you visit our regular website at www.sunny.ch you can see whether you are connecting with IPv4 or with IPv6. The website runs as a virtual web server hosted by our ISP, www.cyberlink.ch, and utilizes an Apache web server running Linux.

Additional Resources

Silvia Hagen, owner and CEO of Sunny Connection AG is the author of a number of books, including IPv6 Essentials. She regularly speaks at international conferences like Brainshare US and Europe, Cisco and NUI Events, IPv6 Summits and other technical conferences.

Sunny Connection AG (www.sunny.ch) is a leading IT consulting and education company based in Zurich, Switzerland. Its main expertise is in directory services integration and in network and protocol analysis, with more than ten years of experience in consulting mid-sized and large companies, mainly in the areas of industry, banking and insurance.

If you would like to discuss specific issues with us or to have an in-house, customized education for your IT decision makers, strategists and IT engineers, please contact us at www.sunny.ch or email to ipv6@sunny.ch