Businesses capitalize on IPv6 mandate

For a variety of reasons, companies see a good business case for developing IPv6 offerings for agencies that face a compliance deadline that is less than two years away.

Federal agencies have until June 2008 to upgrade their network backbones to IPv6, which will support a vast increase in the number of unique IP addresses available and bring other advances over the current IPv4. IPv6 support is a requirement of the forthcoming Networx contract as well, giving agencies more than one reason to implement IPv6.

AT&T and Global Crossing have teamed to develop an IPv6 test bed network that agencies can use to phase in the new protocol and test its implementation before disconnecting older applications. Meanwhile, Command Information, an IPv6 training company, has opened a center in Herndon, Va., where customers can train employees and develop IPv6 applications.

“The government and the world are moving very slowly down this path” to IPv6, said Hank Beebe, vice president in charge of the Networx contract bid at AT&T Government Solutions. The partnership with Global Crossing “gives agencies the ability to test [their new networks] in a real-world environment.”

Having a way to test upgrades in the real world will help agencies ensure that they can migrate smoothly from the old to the new, said Alan Rosenberg, Global Crossing’s global vice president of business development.

Command Information’s center can accommodate up to 100 people at a time for training, and it also can serve as a test facility, said Tom Patterson, the company’s chief executive officer. “We’ve built out a June 2008 infrastructure today,” he said. “It takes a lot of the guesswork out of how you do a transition.”

Patterson said he believes the mandate is not the only reason the government is interested in IPv6. The technology can support agency missions in ways current technology cannot, he said. However, “because it is a brand-new industry, you can’t just take things out of the box and plug them in,” he added.

But not all analysts agree that IPv6 would catch on without the mandate.

“The value proposition of IPv6 is still relatively weak,” said Zeus Kerravala, a vice president at the Yankee Group. “It’s tied to having a lot more addresses. There are a lot of other things IPv6 could do, but for the most part it’s not.”

Vendors are uniquely positioned to aid agencies as mandates are issued and as deadlines approach, said Rishi Sood, a vice president at Gartner.

“When mandates like these happen and proclamations from above are articulated in the marketplace, many times the vendor community needs to get together,” he said.

AT&T’s partnership with Global Crossing “enables potential customers and prospects to get a better understanding of what IPv6 could mean,” Sood said. And agencies must understand it, “given the larger business issues associated with the federal marketplace today.”

Some agencies may have moved slowly at first, but the pace is increasing, Rosenberg said. “There is a realization that this is coming to fruition,” he said.