Checklist

Five Steps to Prepare Your Network for IPv6

The next-generation Internet Protocol will transform the Internet: will your company be ready?
In February 2011, the last blocks of IPv4 Internet addresses were doled out to the registries around the world that assign them to companies. This exhaustion of IP addresses signals a new urgency in the evolution of the Internet. In the coming years, the Internet will gradually phase in a new Internet protocol, IPv6, which will slowly usher in the next-generation Internet. IPv6 has an unlimited number of IP addresses, which makes room for millions of new individual users as well as companies to come online with billions of new devices and web-based applications. Essentially, IPv6 opens up a world of innovation, growth, and opportunity on the Internet. Will your company be ready? Even though many companies, especially in Asia, have already begun implementing IPv6 on their networks, the IPv6 transformation wont happen overnight. The two Internet protocols arent interchangeable or compatible, so organization will have to run them both in parallel on their networks for some time. Whether your company wants to be on the cutting edge of the IPv6 network or merely wants to establish a presence, a phased in approach is the smart, cost-effective way to move to the next-generation Internet protocol.

Step 1: Complete a network assessment

The first step is to figure out if IPv6 has snuck onto your network already. You need to know what IPv6-enabled equipment you might already have on your network and how much new equipment youll need to purchase. The industry has been moving toward IPv6 for than 10 years, and many vendors, including Cisco and HP, have already added IPv6 capabilities to their networking gear. If youve purchased a router or switch in the last few years, it may be IPv6 ready - in fact, you could already be running IPv6 without knowing it. If IPv6 is quietly active on your network, you could have a gaping hole in your defenses. Even if you dont plan on implementing IPv6 on a wide scale any time soon, you should still take an active role in locking it down on your existing network.

Step 2: Complete a software inventory

Like networking hardware, many operating systems are also IPv6-enabled, and some are even switched on by default. IPv6 will impact every corner of your IT ecosystem, including applications. So you need to know if you have software thats currently handling IPv6 traffic, such as Microsoft Windows 7, and if you have web-based applications that will need to be retooled for the new Internet protocol.

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Ziff Davis | Checklist | Five Steps to Prepare Your Network for IPv6

Step 3: Understand how IPv6 will impact your business

This step is purely theoretical, but it will inform the path your company will take in the IPv6 transformation. The next-generation Internet promises to be an Internet of hyper-connected things. New devices will come online and communicate with each other, companies will be able to glean deep insights into the vast amounts of new data they can gather, and programmers will develop innovative peer-to-peer applications to take advantage of the capabilities of IPv6. Every organization has to decide how and when it will move to IPv6. Aggressive early adopters may choose to phase IPv6 in now across the enterprise and develop apps based on IPv6. Other companies may decide to block all IPv6 traffic from their networks and wait to deploy the new protocol until more of the world has first adopted it. But most companies will be somewhere in between, allowing some IPv6 traffic across their firewall and building an IPv6 web site that gives them a presence on the IPv6 Internet. Know, too, what kind of benefit moving to IPv6 could bring your company. For instance, do you have important business partners on the IPv6 network? Do you want to grow your business on the next-generation Internet? Deciding which of these types is right for your organization will inform your IPv6 migration plan.

Step 4: Develop a migration plan

Even the most eager companies should phase IPv6 in over time instead of taking a rip-and-replace approach to your infrastructure. Some networking gear will have to be upgraded or replaced to support the new Internet protocol, but rolling it all out at once is likely to be more expensive than it needs to be. Add IPv6 equipment to your existing purchase plan, identifying line items that can be swapped out for IPv6-enabled products. Your migration plan should identify where in your enterprise you want to first implement IPv6. Do you want to roll it out in your R&D department first? Do you want to keep it at the edge of your network? Or do you want to begin at the core of your network, where it might be easier to mirror your existing IPv4 network with the new IPv6 network? The migration plan must also take into consideration the technique youll use to implement IPv6. IPv6 traffic must run in a parallel, separate network from IPv4 traffic. You can use the same equipment to do this, which is called dual-stacking. Factor in, also, all the security measures you have in place to filter and monitor IPv4 traffic - those same security measures must also be in place for IPv6 traffic.

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Ziff Davis | Checklist | Five Steps to Prepare Your Network for IPv6

Step 5: Flip the IPv6 switchn

After youve identified where to start your first phase of an IPv6 migration, installed or upgraded your networking hardware, enabled your software, and configured your security tools for the new network, you simply allow IPv6 traffic to start flowing across your network. And youve joined the next-generation Internet. With IPv6, the next evolution of the Internet is unbound with unlimited IP addresses. The next-generation Internet protocol will enable scenarios that seem futuristic now, but will become as commonplace as our smartphones in the near future. Prepare your network today and be a part of the innovations to come. The migration plan must also take into consideration the technique youll use to implement IPv6. IPv6 traffic must run in a parallel, separate network from IPv4 traffic. You can use the same equipment to do this, which is called dual-stacking. Factor in, also, all the security measures you have in place to filter and monitor IPv4 traffic those same security measures must also be in place for IPv6 traffic.

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