2012

NextExpert Technologies

Adoption of IPV6 : Moving into Internet 2.0

Created by Arunkumar K : CTO, NextExpert Technologies

Contents
1. 2. 3. The clock is ticking ................................................................................................................................ 2 Whats Next?.......................................................................................................................................... 3 NTPL offering: ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Phase 1 : Business case ............................................................................................................................. 5 Phase 2 : IT infrastructure Assessment & Design ..................................................................................... 6 Phase 3 : Competency Building ................................................................................................................. 7 Phase 4 : Integration and Deployment ..................................................................................................... 8 Phase 5: Operation and Maintenance .................................................................................................... 10 5. Why NTPL ............................................................................................................................................ 10

1. The clock is ticking

Limited availability of IPv4 addresses:
A period in the information age in which communication and commerce via the Internet became a central focus for businesses, consumers, government, and the media In the information age in which communication and commerce via the Internet became a central focus for businesses, consumers, government, and the media has made it imperative for the large enterprises and communication service providers across the globe to move to an all-IP world. The current version of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) created in 1981 is limited to 4.2 billion IP addresses. But the enormous growth of the internet and the way the addresses were assigned (classes A, B and C), resulted in a serious lack of addresses. There are several methods that avoid the total run out of addresses: PPP/DHCP (address sharing), CIDR (classless inter-domain routing) and NAT (network address translation), but do not seem to be enough in a few years, specially having into account the growing number of devices that need a permanent allocation of an IP address (UMTS, DSL, etc), and the applications that are end-to-end, and are not compatible with NAT (IPsec, VoIP, etc.). With device to device communication becoming a reality and more and more connected devices, has led to the depletion of IPv4 addresses and subsequently enterprises have to sooner than later seek for solutions to this problem of exhaustion of IPv4 addresses. On February 3, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the international body responsible for distributing Internet addresses, completed its final allocation of IPv4 addresses to each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). While it will take some time for the RIRs to distribute the last remaining IPv4 addresses to carriers, the date marks the end of an era for the Internet and for Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which has been the Internets main communication protocol for over 20 years. The available address space for Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is approaching exhaustion for the public pool of IPv4 addresses sooner rather than later. Gartner predicts that by 2013, unallocated IPv4 addresses will cease to be obtainable from 90 percent of national registrars. The transition to IPv6 was intended to be a gradual process taking 3-4 years to execute in a transparent fashion. However, due to the unpredictability of IPv4 address exhaustion, many customers have waited until now to begin thinking about transition. The address exhaustion will initially impact carriers and mobile operators ability to procure and allocate IPv4 addresses to their customers.

Critical requirement for Business continuity:

The rapid success of Internet, leading to accelerated consumption of IP addresses, has led to the anxiety about shortage of IP addresses in the coming years. Lack of IPv4 addresses, would hamper expansion of the internet dependent business and constrain the ability of the organization to communicate across the ever increasing newer IP protocol based communication systems across the globe. An enterprises growth potential will be limited if it is unable to communicate with new and existing customers and business partners who have moved to the new protocol. When running on IPv4 you risk losing market share and connectivity with the rest of the world sooner. Not moving away from IPv4 and adopting new protocol will provide staying ahead of the competition and maintaining a global presence a bigger challenge.

2. Whats Next?
IPv6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol and is designated as the successor to IPv4, which has been the Internets main communication protocol for over 20 years. With IPv4 address space almost depleted, the move to IPv6 is necessary to allow the Internet and the global economy it supports to continue to grow. IP version 6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force to deal with a looming shortage of addresses under IPv4. IPv6 offers the potential to build a much more powerful Internet, with vastly larger scale compared to the current situation. Addresses in IPv4 have only 32 bits, allowing for only about 4 billion addresses, compared to 128-bit IPv6, with some 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses.

Moving into it Internet 2.0:

IPv6 adoption is like a snowball rolling down a hill: with the exhaustion of IPv4 address space, the number of IPv6 users will rapidly gain momentum. It is evident that IPv6 and IPv4 will coexist for many years now, however, to realize the true potential of the digital economy and to enable next generation services, operators will have to plan their IPv6 migrations soon. It is anticipated that the first RIR (APNIC) will run out of IPv4 addresses in August 2011 with others soon to follow. The exhaustion of IPv4 address space means that organizations can no longer afford to ignore IPv6. The new protocol has already been adopted across many parts of the globe. To avoid losing connectivity with the growing segment of Internet users and potential customers who surf the Web over IPv6, organizations need to start transitioning to IPv6 this year. Organizations that delay will lose connectivity with the rest of the world and forfeit their presence on the new Internet. They may also incur additional cost and risk due to an aging infrastructure and lose competitive advantage due to an inability to integrate new IPv6-only applications and services.

Challenges:
A successful IPv6 transition requires time, careful planning, the right resources, and most importantly, real know-how. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will be a significant network changeover and a milestone in the history of the Internet. The design, implementation and configuration of IPv6 networks will be a complex process, requiring significant changes to current communication systems and management processes. Not only will IPv6 involve a significant overhaul to existing infrastructure, it will also require a new approach to how IP address space is managed. In addition, IPv6 is not backwards-compatible with IPv4. This lack of backwards compatibility will create significant challenges for organizations as they move to IPv6. The companies need to carefully plan for the migrations keeping in mind their business continuity. It is extremely important that all software, hardware aspects are clearly evaluated before launching a migration plan, as any gaps can have direct impact on the availability of many critical services. As you solidify your strategy for IPv6 adoption, the introduction of this new technology into your IT environment needs to be done methodically with a full understanding of the benefits, challenges and caveats surrounding the implementation. The key contributors to a successful IPv6 implementation are illustrated below:

3. NTPL offering:
NTPL provides a full suite of IPv6 Consulting services to assist customers with readiness and transition to IPv6. NTPL IPv6 consulting service help customer achieve IPv4 to IPv6 migration in five phases.

Phase 1 : Business case

NTPL assist your IT team, senior management and other stakeholders in building a business case. The business case explains how the scope of the proposed project fits within the existing business and IT strategies of the organization; and the compelling case for change, in terms of the existing and future operational needs of the organization. In a nutshell it provides description of the business need and its contribution to the organizations business strategy, objectives, why it is needed now, key benefits to be realized, key risks, critical success factors and how they will be measured, Summarise the potential scope of the project - minimum, desirable, and optional, Outline the internal and external factors upon which the successful delivery of this project are dependent. The outcome of this phase will provide insight into the following : 1. Clearly Define and Link Each IPv6 Benefit "Cause" to an "Effect" 2. Clearly Identify the KPI for Each Forecasted Benefit

3. Assess the Economic Risk of No Investment 4. Alignment with the Company's Strategic Goals

Phase 2 : IT infrastructure Assessment & Design

This phase is a 3 part activity Readiness assessment for evaluating the technical and business impact of IPv6 on existing IT environment by analyzing readiness, Design provides comprehensive blueprint for adopting IPv6,Transition planning focuses on the specifics required to implement the IPv6 lifecycle strategy within the infrastructure, taking a client from current state to a planned start up IPv6 footprint, a dual IPv4/IPv6 steady-state environment, and ultimately the decommissioning of IPv4.

Readiness Assessment
Readiness assessment a two-part assessment evaluating infrastrucutre elements and Business Assessment . It helps identify the aspects of the environment that will be impacted by IPv6 and defines the costs and risks of IPv6 adoption. Service activities and deliverables include: Infrastructure Assessment :When assessing the readiness of a network there are many areas that must be taken into consideration. Every infrastrucutre elements- hardware/software, server, Endpoints, application server (eg Web,DB,SAP/CRM), customized applications like e-services, business or industry specific application must be assessed to determine it's IPv6 readiness status.Aligning product refresh cycles with IPv6 readiness is critical. NTPL Consulting services provide an inventory of elements and applications that will be impacted by IPv6 moving forward. Business Assessment :A Business Assessment to understand how IPv6 impacts your organizations business model.

Design
This phase provide an architectural framework for integration of IPv6 in phases within the current IPv4 environment and a strategy for deploying IPv6 within the enterprise. The architecture of an environment supporting IPv6 will consist initially of islands of IPv4, IPv6 and dual stack IPv4/IPv6 components. When deploying IPv6, a critical stage is determining which IPv6 transition mechanisms to use. There are a large number of transition mechanisms which are often used together in complex combinations. It is important to determine which mechanisms (tunnels, translation mechanisms)are right for your organisation if the implementation of IPv6 is to succeed.In addition the addressing schemas, integration with DNS/DHCP, architecture for dual homing with internet carriers, operating system constraints for IPv6 adoption, challenges of current applications eg Web,DB,SAP/CRM, customized applications like e-services, business or industry specific application for IPv6 readiness are addressed. Service activities and deliverables include: Develop a high-level architectural blueprint for your IPv6 enabled IT infrastructure Create a strategy for transitioning your current IT infrastructure to IPv6 Build a High Level design document Build a Low Level Design document Conduct Design Workshop

Transition
We will develop a comprehensive, enterprise-wide transition strategy that incorporates logical implementation phases, cost timeframe considerations, effective architectural, planning, testing, validation processes.

Service activities and deliverables include: Develop IPv6 transition timelines, sequencing and interdependencies. Define governance and program management aspects of transition teams. Develop transition project plan, organizational teams, communications plans and training.

Phase 3 : Competency Building

One of the most important element to ensure a successful deployment of IPv6 is Capacity building. NTPL provides a holistic training program in addressing the reskilling of the workforce for IPv6.It is intended as an aid to capacity building and a way to familarise the IT team with IPv6. This program helps your workforce to understand the technical intricacies and acquire hands-on experience in order to integrate IPv6 in their networks. Our Competency development covers various domains :

Phase 4 : Integration and Deployment

Integration and Deployment leverage NTPLs multivendor IT environments experience to provide technical expertise and end-to-end project management that ensures a non-disruptive deployment Our skilled experts can leverage their vast networking and IT experience, a vendor-independent approach and proven methodologies and tools to provide you with an actionable road map for implementing IPv6. Deployment covers four major areas of IT infrastructure :

Network & Security devices

The configuration of your network devices is critical to the deployment of IPv6. This service focuses on the development of the equipment configurations, test plans and integration plans required to integrate network and security elements & plan a phased roll-out into your IPv6 environment. Target IP infrastructure elements include IP addressing, routers, switches, firewalls,UTM, load balancers, IDS/IPS, WAN accelerators, IP phones and VPN devices.

Network Services
NTPL can also help you configure the essential network services that make your network operate smoothly. Some of the critical services like DNS to support IPv6 as well as IPv4 is critical if the deployment of IPv6 is to succeed. Our consultants can help you configure DNS on a number of different platforms like BIND, Microsoft. NTPL's consultants have a wide experience of implementing the following network services over IPv6.

DNS DHCPv6 Dynamic Routing Services Multicast Services Mobile IPv6 Services LDAP Active Directory Samba Radius Kerberos LDAP NFS Linux CIFS client SNMP Syslog

Operating System
A heterogeneous environments with any combination of Unix, Linux , Windows and MAC operating systems is complex. NTPL consultants have extensive experience of making IPv6 work in heterogeneous environments. We work closely with operating system vendors like Microsoft, RedHat, HP, SUN and APPLE.

Enterprise Application
NTPL's consultants also have a wide experience of implementing common applications over IPv6. These range from Internet Services such as mail and web servers through to enterprise applications.

Servers and End user devices

Rolling out IPv6 onto servers and end user computing devices like PC, Laptop, Handheld devices, Mobile, iPad thin clients is a crucial part of IPv6 deployment. The success of the deployment of IPv6 depends on how well your end user's applications work over IPv6. Deterioration in service with the introduction of IPv6 will lead to a negative perception of the new protocol. Therefore, it is crucial that the correct choices are made when configuring servers and end user computing devices to use IPv6.

Phase 5: Operation and Maintenance

Throughout the operate and maintenance phase, IT infrastructure needs to be proactively monitor the health and vital signs of the network to improve service quality; reduce disruptions; mitigate outages; and maintain high availability, reliability, and security. By providing an efficient framework and operational tools to respond to problems, NTPL assist you avoid costly downtime and business interruption. Our Expert operations also allow an organization to accommodate upgrades, moves, additions, and changes while effectively reducing operating costs. In addition to that NTPL assist you in continually looking for ways to achieve operational excellence through improved performance, expanded services, and periodic reassessments of network value. The primary goal of this phase is to provide Steady state, reduce operating expenses while continually enhancing performance, continuous improvement of IT infrastructure lifecycle

5. Why NTPL
NTPL has a complete lifecycle of IPv6 adoption services, from building a business case, readiness assessments, architecture & design through transition consulting, competency buiding, integration & deployment and maintenance. NTPLs breadth of expertise and experience in a multivendor IT environment, make us an ideal partner to work with clients to deliver a smooth adoption of IPv6. NTPL employs a proven approach and methodology for IPv6 adoption which touch business and IT across multiple domains focused on identifying unique business benefits and risks.

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