September 24, 2018

What’s Stopping The Migration From IPv4 to IPv6

What will the world do if the address space was exhausted and no new hosts could access the internet? Life without internet is hard to imagine, but like natural resources, people might be exhausting the Internet capacity.

The internet community has predicted an IP address apocalypse due to the exhaustion of IPv4 system. This led to the invention of IPv6, a newer and up-to-date IP address system.

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the latest version of Internet Protocol system. It helps identify different devices across the net. To make communication possible across the internet, each device is assigned an IP address.

IPv4 supported address size of 32-bits, but with the growing demand of internet and personal devices, need of more addresses have emerged.

IPv6 uses 128-bit address size. It uses 4 hexadecimal digits, divided into 8 groups with help of colons. But transition to this new version is met with resistance.

Why is migration to IPv6 addresses met with resistance?

Fear of change

IPv6 has not completely replaced IPv4, which means both systems will co-exist.

This can considerable increase the operational cost. Since IPv4 has not completely stop functioning, convincing organizations or people to migrate or sell their IPs can be difficult.

Even though IPv6 is a new technology with much potential, organizations have their uncertainties regarding the change.

Time and money involved

Migrating to a new system will require a lot of planning and investment. Upgrading to IPv6 means procurement of new equipment such as router, servers, switches, etc. Moreover, implementation of new system requires experienced personals, who can revamp the networking system.

During the migration process, hardware needs to be upgraded. Along with this, companies need to invest in new licensing and maintenance programs.

Complex change

Every device connected to your networking system needs to be updated; this will take a lot of time. Until the transition is complete, different department needs to find new communication and coordination methods.

A complete analysis and inventory check of the current networking environment will ease the complexity level during migration.

Disruption of a functioning system

Deployment of a new system means disruption in the current functioning system. If v6 is deployed partially into the system, the devices operating on v4 will be underutilized. This will change the dynamics of your tried and tested operating system.

Clearing inventory

Getting rid of IPv4 compatible inventory will also be a challenge faced by network administration. Holding on to the inventory will mean additional costs.

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