1. IANA did run out of IPv4 addresses last Feb followed by APNIC – RIPE is due to exhaust their supply of v4 assets in first half of this year followed by ARIN early in ’13 – Geoff Huston of APNIC has maintained a very accurate depletion model found here: http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html
   
2. As an IPAM vendor with expertise in IPv6, we are seeing many companies from ISPs, Hosting, to Enterprise & Govt inquire with us about our IPAM in the context of moving to IPv6 – using that as a proxy, we’ve seen our customer inquiries quadruple over last 30 days and the inquires we’ve seen alone just this week have been some VERY LARGE, global ISPs
3. Domestic roll out success of Comcast, led by John Brzozowski, will continue bringing more “home” users online, thus catalyzing more content/SaaS companies to make the swtich (chicken-egg)
4. Increasing need for IPs by “non-traditional” IP copmanies such as “smart grid”, “wifi hot spot cars”, and just about everything else being online, the demand for IPs simply will necessitate the need to move to v6
5. Guess here – we will see some innovations within IPv6 mgmt that will pull the “geek crowd” over to use it to improve application performance – not sure what exactly that might be, however, there are enough people playing with v6 now, that innovations will soon follow

There is a lot more that will yield a strong year for IPv6 adoption, however, these are some good nuggets to keep an eye on.

You don’t need to look too far to the world of medical devices that will communicate bi-directionally thereby yielding massive inflows of data about our human bodies – the innovation velocity is about to really turn upwards!

The Evernet will unleash a tsunami of new pattern matching with all the data streaming in from every connected device or thing, and this will yield new innovation and discovery.  For example, bio-hacking is just an early preview of this type of work whereby people today are “hacking” themselves thru the analysis of newly available “bio-data”.  My friend and colleague, Dave Asprey, is a part of this vanguard and has written extensively on the topic – see: http://about.me/asprey.  He claims (and he is not prone to fantastical statements) that he has been able to reduce his sleep to just 6hrs a night, increased his IQ by 20+ points, and has experienced a more sustained energy level.  This is all due to the fact that he can capture so much data from a variety of always on devices he uses to track his various bio-rhythms, sleep patterns, caloric intakes, exercise, etc.  The ease with which he can now analyze all facets of his corpus has led him to innovate his very own life – this will become more and more common.

In the end,  the evolution of the Internet into the Evernet will increase the innovation velocity we see already happening.  Think about how much has changed in just past 10years – the next decade will be even more innovative and exciting (if you like change!)!!

Many of you may be aware that the Internet itself is undergoing an upgrade from IPv4 to IPv6.  The basic upshot is that IPv4 was launched in the late ’60′s/”70′s (born out of the ARPANET: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET).  When conceived, a finite amount of unique address space was developed and this was 2^32 or ~ 4.3 Billion address written like 234.92.110.42.  We’ve run out of address space and the addresses are how each “device” gets online and communicates.  Along comes IPv6 with its 2^128 address pool or ~ 340 Undecillion addresses (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecillion) written in hexadecimal or 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.  It is quite a bit longer and we have quite a few more of them to use, so let’s keep bringing everything online!

With a human population on Earth now exceeding 7 Billion; a rush of devices moving online from smart phones to ipads to Amazon Fire to airplanes, cars, trains, buses to household appliances going on line to the Smart Grid – we are poised now with IPv6 to truly bring everything online thereby making Everything available to Everyone, Everywhere – the Internet has evolved into something that will usher in more, rapid change and innovation as the ability to crunch data from all new sources will yield commensurately new inventions!!  The Evernet is being made possible thru the roll out of IPv6. (we are under way as you read this)

IPv6 itself will usher some new ways in which IP communications are handled, secured, as well as provisioned, all of which get into the geeky side of Internet Plumbing!!  If you are interested in reading more about the protocol, please feel free to check out any of the following:

• Background
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6
• http://www.theipv6experts.net/
• http://www.networkworld.com/topics/ipv6.html
• http://www.iana.org/ (main body controlling all IP numbers)
• https://www.arin.net/ (N America)
• http://www.ripe.net/ (Europe)
• http://www.afrinic.net/ (Africa)
• http://www.apnic.net/ (Asia)
• http://lacnic.net/en/index.html (Latin America)

IPv6 is ushering in an ever-connected world (everything connected to everyone, everywhere)  that will catalyze innovations faster whereby Moore’s law will directly affect Humanity’s Innovation Velocity (coining new phrase) – life itself is not changing per se, what is changing is our ability to collect, retain, and analyze information (we are still in a nascent era: Information Age) – while HTML5 is a factor in how we can more easily interact on this expanding platform (the Evernet), it is IPv6 that will profoundly evolve the Internet as we know it today yielding to a broader construct, the Evernet!

Working on a larger and expanded version of this, so stay tuned…

A very large investment opportunity is being overlooked by most Investors in tech as it is, quite frankly, overlooked by most of humanity.  The Internet is a force and that force is undergoing a forklift upgrade as we speak.  The Internet Assigned Name Authority (IANA) has handed out the LAST IPv4 address space as of Feb, 2011.  The Internet’s ability to function is predicated upon each device having a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address and thus, a new address schema called IP version 6, or IPv6, has been implemented so that the ever growing number of “things” on the Internet can function properly.

The Problem: IPv4 – IPv6 and what does this really mean?

TCP/IP is the technology that devices use to interact online.  It isn’t as sexy as say the next Facebook or Zynga, however, it is fundamental to how those companies operate online and therefore the “oxygen” to their flames.  What allows each device to get online and communicate is that each one has an unique IP address. IP addresses enable each device to interact with each other over the Global Internet.  From desktops, to laptops, to PS3s, to cell phones, to airplanes, to IP enabled washers and dryers, to virtual machines, to the smart grid, most things will be connected online – with IPv4, we had a finite amount of IP Addresses – we’ve run out as of Feb 2011.

At the inception of the Internet, IP version 4 (IPv4) was and is currently the most widespread protocol used to communicate.  By their binary nature, IP addresses are a finite resource and IPv4 had 2^32 unique IP Addresses or ~ 4.3 Billion addresses.  While 4.3 Billion might seem like a vast number, the growing amount of Internet participation has exhausted this supply – in fact, it has been predicted that by 2020, there will be more than 7 Internet-enabled devices for every man, woman, and child on planet earth.  In February, 2011, the keeper of the free address pool, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, (IANA), fully exhausted and allocated all of the IPv4 Addresses.#

To continue the operation of the Internet, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was created.  The address space created in IPv6 is vast – 2^128 or more than 170 undecillion addresses –  and unlikely to be depleted in the next 50 years.  Everything online must transition to include both IPv6 and IPv4 and eventually transition entirely to the new IPv6 protocol.

IPv6 was created in the mid ‘90s as a result of engineering efforts to keep the Internet growing.  It is an entirely new protocol that is not “backwards compatible” with IPv4.  However, both protocols can run simultaneously over the same “wires”.  This means that there will be a progressive transition (picking up pace from this point forward) from IPv4 to IPv6 commencing with devices that support both protocols (also known as dual stacking).  Eventually, IPv4 will cease to be supported and in the end, all IPv4 only devices will no longer be able to communicate with the IPv6 enabled Internet.

The Investment Opportunity: IPv6 transitions and management and beyond…

We started 6connect in February of 2009 as we saw a lack of cohesively planned, Internet infrastructure management solutions.  Coming out of the ISP, Colocation, Managed Hosting/Cloud world, we embarked upon “unifying Internet infrastructure” thru a holistic approach or unified view into all things IT and facility related (some called that “boiling the ocean”).  We realized rather quickly that we were a bit ahead of the game as the markets’ were either interested in more datacenter cooling optimization (immediate pain then) or consolidation or extensions to the cloud (not to mention the ongoing search for the next Google or Facebook.).  This didn’t stop us.

We always had IPv6 as part of our DNA, as our CTO, Aaron Hughes, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the Protocol itself (not to mention IP overall).  While we new it was important, it took us a bit of time to realize that IPv6 was the missing link – it was the lowest common denominator in the OSI model that would allow all things to be universally connected online.  And thus, once you’ve achieved that, you can then begin to layer up into higher levels of the OSI model and provide control, visibility, and ultimately, automation.

While there is a grand vision in mind, and many companies have pursued this “unification” since the fragmentation ushered in by the PC, there are very concrete, tactical steps that must be taken at the right time – when the pain is most severe.  We were seeking that pain for unified infrastructure and then realized that there was a more focused, “immediate pain”: to address the transition and management for IPv6.

Since IPv6 and IPv4 are not “compatible”, they exist simultaneously on the same wire.  This presents challenges in getting prepared to roll out IPv6, getting control of your current network, ongoing visibility into both protocols, propagating your IPv6 network thru peering, and much, much more. Therefore, a solution is required to help automate many facets of your IP network(s), which is the first step amongst many in unifying infrastructure.

There have been some companies that have existed for quite some time in this space, yet given their histories, have had to adapt to conditions that pre-dated the current climate.  These companies fall into two categories: 1) Service Provider Vendors, and 2) Enterprise Vendors.

The former consists of ISPs, Colocation/Hosting/Managed/Cloud, ASPs & sometimes Content who have usually managed much of their networks in a manual manner (yes – spreadsheets, etc).  The latter are Enterprises big enough to warrant managing their own network and have usually adopted Microsoft backends due to near ubiquity of MS Exchange.  Vendors addressing the Service Providers have sold appliances and large scale, custom, projects that tend to be hundreds of thousands of dollars and forcing large, onerous service contracts.  Enterprise vendors, mostly, have adopted “appliance” models and emphasized providing solutions to very Microsoft focused environments, also resulting in big CapEx and service contracts.

We saw this as a great opportunity to turn things upside down and bring to Network Automation what Rackspace has brought to Server mgmt & automation – solutions that are software based, near universal in application and that leads our customers to using our SaaS model in preference to managing it themselves.  With this model, we can offer lower, fixed, monthly costs that ease purchasing decisions and allow for rapid deployment.

All network operators, big and small, are asking very similar questions which we have been fortunate to have prepared for: how do I get control of my network today and then how do I roll out IPv6 – this is where we have gotten into the market (and investors should start here) and we plan to take them along the “Internet unification spectrum” until we achieve the Evernet.

Investment in future: The Evernet

The transition to IPv6 is under way and gaining momentum.  This exciting time, for us Internet Plumbers, is global in scale and got us thinking as to what the future Internet will be when all things are connected all of the time.  This gave rise to our notion of the Evernet.

As we see Smart meters, cars that act as Internet hubs thru cellular connectivity, wifi on plane, even Tweets from space, the Internet has evolved to include all of everything.  This further presents quite a few investment opportunities in the infrastructure space as ground-up companies like ourselves seek to marry our control of lower levels of OSI model with that of Virtualization.  However, one must always evaluate said investments with market timing in mind (many tech have failed due to market timing – I’d say a lot more than people realize).  We too see the Evernet as a way for our company to continually evolve and expand, all while focused on the immediate pain of getting IPv6 up and running (the next big elephant in the room IPv6 Security!).

———————————————–
Richard Donaldson is the CEO & Co-Founder of 6connect, a leading Network Automation company located in Redwood City, California.  6connect’s suite of Network Automation tools were built by network engineers for network engineers emphasizing IPv6 implementations.  For more information about Richard or 6connect please visit www.6connect.net

The Internet Assigned Name Authority (IANA) has handed out the LAST IPv4 address space as of Feb, 2011. The Internet’s ability to function is predicated upon each device having a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address and thus, a new address schema called IP version 6, or IPv6, has been implemented so that the ever growing number of “things” on the Internet can function properly.

Background: IPv4 – IPv6, What does this mean?

TCP/IP is the technology that devices use to interact online. What allows each device to get online and communicate is that each one has an unique IP address . IP addresses enable each device to interact with each other over the Global Internet. From desktops, to laptops, to PS3s, to cell phones, to airplanes, to IP enabled washers and dryers, most things will be connected online – this means we need a lot more addresses than are available today.

At the inception of the Internet, IP version 4 (IPv4) was and is currently the most widespread protocol used to communicate. By their binary nature, IP addresses are a finite resource and Vint & Bob established, at the time, 2^32 unique IP Addresses or ~ 4.3 Billion addresses. While 4.3 Billion might seem like a vast number, the growing amount of Internet participation has exhausted this supply – in fact, it has been predicted that by 2020, there will be more than 7 Internet-enabled devices for every man, woman, and child on planet earth. In February, 2011, the keeper of the free address pool, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, (IANA), fully exhausted and allocated all of the IPv4 Addresses.#

To continue the operation of the Internet, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was created. The address space created in IPv6 is vast – 2^128 or more than 170 undecillion addresses – and unlikely to be depleted in the next 50 years. Everything online must transition to include both IPv6 and IPv4 and eventually transition entirely to the new IPv6 protocol.

IPv6 was created in the mid ‘90s as a result of engineering efforts to keep the Internet growing. It is an entirely new protocol that is not “backwards compatible” with IPv4. However, both protocols can run simultaneously over the same “wires”. This means that there will be a progressive transition (picking up pace from this point forward) from IPv4 to IPv6 commencing with devices that support both protocols (also known as dual stacking). Eventually, IPv4 will cease to be supported and in the end, all IPv4 only devices will no longer be able to communicate with the IPv6 enabled Internet.

Thankfully, the transition to IPv6 has been underway for a while now. For example, all US Government public-facing servers are slated to be IPv6 compatible by September of 2012, and internal US Federal systems must be IPv6 ready by 2014. Companies, starting with Internet Service Providers like ATT & Comcast are well underway in their conversions. Furthermore, 256 out of 306 Top Level Domains (TLDs)# – like .com or .net or .nl or .biz – are already enabled for IPv6. Those in the process of transitioning to IPv6 can see how this will all work (or not) on June 8th, 2011, which is designated as World IPv6 Day. World IPv6 Day is the first global 24-hour “test drive” of IPv6.

How the Internet is “Inter” connected.
To understand how we will be affected, it is helpful to understand how the Internet is actually “inter-connected”. The Internet is literally a “web” of networks all connected to each other. From our home network that has 2 or 3 computers to Internet Service Providers to online companies like Amazon & eBay.

In the middle of this diagram, the “Internet” is a collection of all the world’s networks interconnected together so that we, an end-user, can get from point A to point B across (or “routed” across) all of these networks. In the end, this means that everyone online and everyone who wants to be online will be undergoing the upgrade to IPv6 starting with getting a new IPv6 address.

At the end of the day, the biggest and most noticeable difference between IPv4 and IPv6 are the actual IP Addresses being used. IPv4 had a 32-bit string of numbers that often looked like the following:

202.127.212.134.

This “address” was a part of a pool of addresses managed by IANA as described earlier. As this address pool has been depleted, all new requests for addresses will only be able to get a v6 address. IPv6 addresses are quite a bit more complex – they are 128-bit addresses:

3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.

There are many advantages to this more complex address schema in addition to the fact that now every device will have it’s own unique identifier. Ironically, the longer address will actually help to improve end-user experience online as the Internet architecture will see improvements with respect to traffic congestion, application specificity#, security and much more.

We have established that every Internet-enable device must have a unique IP address. Now what does this mean for the various constituencies accessing the Internet?

For most end-users at home,# this transition will happen automatically and will be mostly unnoticeable. They will get their current and updated addresses from their ISP; businesses will have their IT departments configure their own networks so that their customers (the business) will automatically get their addresses, etc. Therefore, those most concerned about this transformation are those that actually manage portions of the Internet: Internet Service Providers, I/PaaS providers, online Content & Application Service providers, and small to Enterprise businesses that run their own networks.

As we see from the above chart, most end-users and small businesses will really only be responsible for ensuring that they have purchased IPv6 enabled devices, including computers, wireless access points, smart phones, printers and game consoles. Most devices purchased after 2007 are in fact IPv6 enabled. For example, Microsoft has been IPv6 enabled since version Windows XP-SP1 as well as commensurate Apple OSs.

The heavy lifting will be shouldered by the ISPs, I/PaaS, Content/ASPs and businesses that manage their own networks.

There are approximately 66,000 registered Autonomous Systems (AS)#. These “networks” are run by ISPs, I/PaaS, ASP/Content as well as government & education organizations. All of these “networks” imply a level of self administration, hence Autonomous, and will require their Network Administrators to follow this simple review:
Assess the network for IPv4 only devices, dual stacked devices (IPv4 & IPv6), as well as IPv6 only devices (not many of these yet)
Layout an IPv6 network architecture starting with an Address Schema (which entails sub-netting)
Determine your “stop gap” measures for IPv4 only devices – there are many “translation” scenarios that can be employed temporarily to ease burden of next step – however, one should note that like 8 track tapes used for playing music, using IPv4 only will impact your Internet experience and over time cease to operate#
Provide a rip/replace plan for those things not capable of supporting IPv6
Commence upgrade

These are certainly not trivial steps in transitioning to v6, however again, these are exclusive to service providers, those directly involved in managing networks. It does not preclude end users or SMB however, from being aware of this change and ensuring their own devices are compatible.

So hopefully this section has given a snap-shot of the “Internet Infrastructure Ecosystem” and how each “vertical” will be affected by this transition. Furthermore, while not intended to cry wolf nor claim the Internet will die, for those who are involved in the upgrade of your own Network this has catalyzed you to commence the transition. Now the next logical question – when do you really need to do this?

IPv6 Transition: When do we really need to start?

The transition to IPv6 is well under way and has been fueled by the IANA announcement and APNIC announcement (RIPE & ARIN will be next to run out and both should be out in 2011). We will also see a massive IPv6 “World Day” on June 8th, 2011, that will test the globes/internet’s IPv6 readiness as well as spotlight issues. So how does this translate into when you have to get yourself, your business or your organization ready?

While everyone should be AWARE that this transition is underway, the “services providers” are really the ones behind the 8ball right now as it is their jobs to provide Internet access or access to Internet infrastructure, which has to be IPv6 moving forward. Given the lack of backwards compatibility, this will require some education, hardware and software upgrades and re-thinking about how to layout a network. This is due to the fact that the IPv4 mind-set was one of “scarce resources” (we will run out of addresses). In an IPv6 world, you have nearly unlimited resources and can plan your network IP Address plan very differently.

ISPs, I/PaaS, ASP/Content services providers should be in the midst of transition and if they are not, now is the time. Enterprises will have to assess their own network needs but is not of immediate urgency. And, finally, SMBs and End-Users will really only have to track their own ISPs steps to upgrade to IPv6 as well as be aware of existing and future tech purchases being IPv6 ready.

The entire Internet should run more smoothly and securely thanks to IPv6

The steps those undertaking this transition will need to make are also a GREAT OPPORTUNITY to automate many rote network processes. The general steps, and where automation can play a significant role are as follows:
In subsequent articles we will be diving into Software Tools to help Service providers in this transition, what some of the emerging best practices will be in the areas of IPv6 Automation, IPv6 Security, and IPv6 as it relates to Asset Tracking. In the mean time, please feel free to reach out with any questions or comments about IPv6 or Internet Infrastructure – rdonaldson@6connect.net

———————————————–
Richard Donaldson is the CEO & Co-Founder of 6connect, a leading Network Automation company located in Palo Alto, California. 6connect’s suite of Network Automation tools were built by network engineers for network engineers emphasizing IPv6 implementations. For more information about Richard or 6connect please visit www.6connect.net

This doesn’t mean you have to be a Net Eng, but you do need to ask if your home, office, enterprise is ready for IPv6 – the ISP won’t just “fix it for you”…in fact, they are prepping to put a larger band aid on temporarily – this is Carrier Grade NAT (Network Address Translation).

Carrier Grade NAT is what ISPs will do to prolong v4 utilization (and why NAT was invented in the first place) – what this means, however, is that many functions built into our user experience (like geo-location) will no longer work once this patch is implemented (and it is being tested as we speak).

Today, most of us use NAT in our homes (we may just not realize this) – your ISP hands your home gateway a real, public IP…then typically your home gateway is either a router itself that performs DHCP (dynamically assigns “fake” addresses: 192.168.xxxx.xxx) or you connect to one like a wireless base station…in affect, all devices behind the “real IP” address are hidden…now imagine if your ISP did this to all of its end users in say…northern California. This means that any application that counts on IP information to better tune your experience for it could tell that where your home gateway was since it had a real IP address will no longer function – so your searches for example will no longer be as specific. Sure, this is temporary, but is indicative of the KNOWN issues that will arise – I am sure that there will be more that are unknown.

All in all, IPv6 is something that everyone should know to ask about – you don’t need to know how it works just that any new technology you buy that you want to access the internet should be v6 compatible!

Now, one might ask (for I did): what does that mean?

Well, imagine a world where all things connected on line had a unique IP address (v6 enables that) – this was, incidentally how internet was envisioned at first – that means no more setting up NAT, you’ll have point to point communications without having to alter packets with NAT – this means a “flatter” architecture to Internet at large, a faster internet and far more flexibility and ease of deployment…

What else have you seen that will be reset as v6 is adopted?

Everywhere in business (and life) we run into over-sized egos (which I feel are directly correlated to self-confidence) which truly are the single most destructive force in our interactions with each other. It is almost “child-like” insofar as we “grown children” are constantly trying to be more than we are in front of our peers instead of being realistic about our own capabilities and willing to be honest and objective about our strengths and weaknesses (the latter being the hardest to come to grips with).

It is a sign of strength and not weakness to be able to identify those things we are not good at and seek help. Imagine if we could all do that (instead of arguing about who is better at what) as to what we could achieve? I know that this is anethma to most as we all strive to the “best at everything” – however, when we really step back and think about it, we can’t be great at all things – that is just the human condition, so get over it and focus more on what you are really good at (pick a few things) and emphasize collaboration with those who are good or great at what you are not (this is so very hard to do in real life).

Remember the movie “The Devil’s Advocate” and Al Pacino playing the Devil who says in the end: “Vanity is my favorite sin!” – we oft forget that we are and can be our own worst enemies!!