OMB: Agencies met IPv6 deadline

All major agencies met the June 30 deadline for successfully demonstrating their adoption of IPv6 technology, the Office of Management and Budget said today.By pushing agencies to adopt IPv6, the deadline also encourages industry to provide products and services that are IPv6-enabled, said Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for e-government and information technology.“Agencies’ demonstration of results is a step in the right direction,” she said.In the near future, the National Institute of Standards and Technology will issue a standards document that will detail the federal requirements for secure and interoperable network products in the global IPv6 marketplace, Evans said.In the meantime, agencies should focus on establishing secure, shared IPv6-enabled network services during their regular technology upgrade cycles, she said. They should also use their enterprise architecture and capital planning activities to prepare for that.“The process should be holistic, and agencies should use their segment architectures to develop integrated plans,” Evans said. When agencies establish new business processes, she recommended that they use IPv6 capabilities and other recent initiatives that foster security and robustness.Agencies' chief information officers should also take advantage of the new Policy Utilization Assessment service being developed by the General Services Administration, Evans said, because it will give CIOs feedback on how well their agencies have implemented specific policies.