IPv4 run-out has started - prepare for IPv6

So, checking technical blogs and tweets this morning, I learn that APNIC have triggered IANA IPv4 exhaustion. What does this mean for the non-technical user? Well, in the short term, nothing - RIRs like RIPE and ARIN still have stocks of IPv4.

In the medium term, it means you have to move to IPv6 soon. Given the rate at which IANA ran out, you have about a year from now before IPv4 is simply unavailable to you, and services will have to be IPv6 enabled or else. If you're buying network-enabled kit that you expect to keep using in 12 months time, make sure it's IPv6 ready. If it's not, talk to your salesman, and tell them that the reason you're delaying the purchase is that you want IPv6 support.

As a product developer, I'm not seeing any pressure from the field to get IPv6 into our Internet enabled devices; it's simply not something that impinges on people who buy equipment. You need to change this now. Within the lifetime of anything you buy today, IPv4 will run out, and you will need your equipment to be IPv6 enabled if it's going to continue working.

Please, put pressure on sales teams to IPv6 enable everything - it won't happen until you do. If you don't, don't be surprised when you're rebuying everything in a year or two, simply because IPv4-only kit is no longer usable for the task you bought it for.

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