“Okay, who wants to learn IPv6 and be the IPv6 person for CPOC?” This was the question asked by our manager to our team back in 2002 when we heard “IPv6 is COMING – GET READY NOW!” My hand went up almost without me even realizing it. No other hands went up. Not one. So, by default, it was me. I was pumped with excitement! After the meeting I immediately went online and ordered about 8 IPv6 books. (For those of you who know me… this will not be a shock) 🙂
Then what happened? Was 2003 the “year that CPOC got SLAMMED with IPv6 requests”? Uh…. no. Was 2004? ….. No. Don’t get me wrong. People came in with IPv6 in the test plan. But typically IPv6 was on the list of things to test more as a “checklist” test just to make sure the boxes could do IPv6.
In ~2006 I started believing that this “IPv4 exhaustion scare” wasn’t “real”. NAT would take care of everything. If it was “really” that much of a big deal …… people would be doing something serious about it. I would see more networks coming in making IPv6 a priority. So I told myself this really must not be the big deal people were claiming……
I don’t agree with that anymore. It’s real.
But of course if I am now convinced it is really real — then back to my original question. Why isn’t everyone all over it? Why are we all still trying to convince you to take this seriously? Why does this blog even need to be written?
Honestly? I think it is because we are human and we are getting in our own way.
You see…. IPv6 migration is NOT an easy task. It is going to require a lot of planning… a lot of knowledge of applications… and a lot of work. It is almost too big to think about or to start. So what do we seem to tend to do instead of starting on it? Wait.. Ooooooo…. look …. look…. pretty shiny squirrel! Look at the pretty shiny squirrel. What pretty shiny squirrel? Whatever IT “buzzword fun” is on the list for this quarter.
… and then IPv6 gets “bumped” off the project list… “for that quarter”. Because… well… ya see… we have to learn about this pretty shiny squirrel.
Categories: IPv6
I started around the same time and wanted to deploy it since then.
A big difference between then and now is it is realistic to deploy it because the support for production level services is mostly there now. Enough to introduce the first production services supporting it.
There’s a big difference between a router with a few IPv6 links and a BNG with thousands of subscribers doing DHCPv6 and needing L2 security.
We can’t keep kicking the can down the road for sure. I finally decided to upgrade my home network now that my ISP supports IPv6. It’s been a learning experience which is always a good thing. Unfortunately my enterprise hasn’t seen the light yet. There will have to be a compelling business reason, aka “you won’t be able to get to facebook on break anymore”.
Very cool that you have upgraded your home network. 🙂