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I'm writing from the RIPE NCC meeting in Lisbon having just come out of an IPV6 update session given by Alex Band.

Businesses are being urgen to take action with regards to IPV6 as soon as possible. It is estimated that the IPV4 address space will be depleted within the next three years, that's to say only IPV6 addresses can be allocated thereafter.

At present 10% of the IPV4 address space is remaining and getting an IPV4 allocation is becoming increasingly difficult as the remaining IPV4 subset decreases.

If you are providing networking services, then you are being faced with a brick wall, the longer you leave it the closer the brick wall becomes. If you don't take action until two or three years down the line, you will be faced with an incredibly steep learning curve, siginifcant expense and impending pressure. Your product launches will take a hit while your competitors (who managed the migration process with time to spare) will zoom ahead.

NAT's that are designed to artificially increase the IPV4 address space by splitting unique IP's are not the answer. They complicate the whole process and make direct unique node to node connectivity impossible.

The difficulty is convincing the higher powers in larger corporations of the cost, benefit ratio. Why? Because the customer will see no recognisable benefit. Moving your services to IPV6 in an ideal scenario will not even be noticeable to the end user, and it isn't possible to state that the move to IPV6 will bring you x% more business than your competitors. However, it must be looked at from the point of view of growth and longevity...If you run into the IPV4 brick wall in a couple of years time and you haven't taken any measures to convert to IPV6 then you won't be able to grow your business and you will lose out to those competitors that seemlessly convert. Starting early will also decrease your overall cost; the tighter the deadline becomes, the more pressure to convert, the more demand for the service and therefore of course the more expensive it becomes.

One further piece of advice discussed in the meeting involves knowledge; more importantly not isolating all your IPV6 knowledge in one person. Technical architects who know a thing or two about IPV6 and who would like a career change could do a lot worse than becoming an IPV6 consultant for large companies. If you place all your knowlege in one person, what's to stop him/her leaving the job and working as freelance for other larger corporations. Make a wider general knowledge base, involve the customer so that you can respond to any questions they may have and give yourself sufficient time to make a steady, planned migration to IPV6.

Has anybody had any experience of moving to IPV6? Or are you planning on moving to IPV6?