Is converting to IPv6 worth it?
 

http://www.ynot.com/modules.php?op=m...icle&sid=51056

Kathee Brewer writes about a topic that has long been discussed in the sidelines but has never really been given much importance. It is also something that our industry should pay attention to given that it will greatly affect our survival in the future.

The internet is rapidly growing, and in recent years, have been getting too crowded. Domains are depleting. Like fresh water and the ozone layer, this resource is rapidly depleting. With the current IPv4 now almost used up, experts see total exhaustion by 2011. So now, the geeks-that-be decided that the Web needs an upgrade. The IPv6 is thus born. Internet Protocol version 6 is the proverbial new world where all domains can grow anew!
But as Brewer reports, it comes with a hefty price. Not only will it entail costs, but it will also change how people will interact with the internet in the next couple of years. The article discusses how the transition will not only be vital to ones presence in the net. Shifting to IPv6 is a necessity should one wishes to venture further in cyberspace in the future.

IPv6 adoption is still a long way off, getting an IPv6 allocation is easy, but getting transit for it is a pain. Most tier 1 networks don't peer on IPv6 and your IP's won't be reachable from half the net.

Don't bother trying to adopt IPv6 until all major transit providers can properly proovide transit for it.

How long do you think that will happen?

No idea to be honest, the problem is that while it's gotten relatively easy to get yourself an IPv6 allocation, finding someone who's willing to route it for you isn't. Most big players are still looking at IPv6 and basically going "not worth it" due to the effort required to convert.

On top of that right now you do get a lot of IPv6-over-IPv4 tunneling, and for IPv6 to really take off, that needs to turn into IPv4-over-IPv6. Given the amount of work that takes to convert an entire network, I don't see it happening any time really soon.

Besides that the IPv4 "shortage" isn't as big as many people make it out to be, there's still enough IP space available, and most registrars that deal in handing out chunks of it have tightened up their rules.

I figure we'll see IPv6 in 5 years or so, maybe longer :)

I still don't think is worth it, not yet anyway.