Summer in the nordics is, well, “interesting”. Temperature goes up and down and this summer it’s been raining quite a lot. We don’t know if we’re going to dress in heavy winter clothes with our wellingtons on, or dress in Hawaii-style shirts and shorts. Every day is a surprise. One thing stays sure though, the interest in IPv6 keeps going up. Yesterday in the shopping mall I met a man with an IPv6 t-shirt – someone I did not know! We exchanged the secret signs of the IPv6 brotherhood and continued as if nothing had happened.
IPv6 is gaining momentum and more and more people are aware of it. Today I’m going to give you, my friends in the brotherhood of IPv6, a couple of links to show that we’re on the winning team. Our global platform for innovation and growth is being accepted and used by more and more users. IPv6 is the new black!
Here’s a few samples of the news from the world of IPv6! Spend 30 minutes every Friday to read more, lab more and learn more about IPv6!
Akamai: Dramatic upswing in the number of IPv6 requests
Erik Nygren, Chief Architect at Akamai, writes in a new blog post:
“While there are still many years to go before IPv6 is the dominant Internet Protocol, IPv6 is now clearly here for real with no going back, and its adoption is only going to continue to grow.”
Erik mentions that in the Akamai network they’ve observed a 460 times increase in the number of IPv6 requests and a 67X increase in number of observed IPv6 addresses. They see three main drivers for this change:
- Content availability
- Availability of IPv6 from access network providers
- End-user device IPv6 support
Akamai has measured IPv6 traffic and gives an estimate of what percentage of the traffice a content provider will see as they upgrade their service to dual stack:
“Sites with a consumer end-user audience are likely to see IPv6 preference rates in the 0.5%-1.5% range, while high-tech sites (such as network equipment manufacturers) are likely to see IPv6 preference rates in the 2-3% range.”
The article is called “A data-driven view of IPv6 adoption” and has been quoted in many places, including PC Magazine and ZDnet. Akamai summarize the data in a nice info graphic (also available as a PDF). The article is worth your time – go read it now!
After the party – the hard work begins!
Bruce Sinclair, CEO of Gogo6, calms us down, now that World IPv6 Launch success party is over. He claims that the hard work begins now, in order to make IPv6 be adopted by more than the early adopters.
Of course this too is not a typical market since IPv6 implementers are not being driven solely by top line economics. Instead they are being driven by a looming technical problem (address depletion) that will affect business continuity. That being said there’s enough similarities to ask the question, “Does the ‘skyrocketing’ trajectory of IPv6 have enough momentum to cross the Chasm or will the market stall before the Early Majority, who have a very different makeup, take over?”
Over 3 Million Americans on IPv6!
Sean Michael Kerner, Enterprise Networking Planet, summarizes a panel discussion at the recent IETF meeting in Vancouver, Canada. While 1% uptake of IPv6 in the US seems very small, it’s still 3 million users!
“In the U.S. the latest numbers for IPv6 are impressive. APNIC’s global survey as of August 1st has IPv6 penetration in the U.S at 1.35 percent. That translates into an estimated IPv6 user base of 3.3 million users, the largest base of IPv6 users in the world.
On a percentage basis, Romania currently tops the APNIC list at 8.73 percent, though in terms of raw users, that translates into approximately 756,000 users. Japan also ranks highly at 1.97 percent user penetration or nearly two million users.
China which is often held up as an example of a country that really needs IPv6, only has penetration of approximately 0.42 percent according to APNIC. That translates into approximately, 2.12 million IPv6 users in China.”
The IETF panel discussion is available online and is worth your time.
What’s next? Keep spreading the word!
So what’s coming next? We all need to make sure we understand IPv6, that we have at least basic experience of operating it and how it impacts our cloud and application infrastructure. Keep talking IPv6, attend seminars and webinars, spread the world and include it as a natural part of all IT projects. Run labs, experiment and play with it. IPv6 is fun, it’s the new infrastructure and best of all – it’s the new BLACK in the network world!