[AusNOG] Why you shouldn't worry about switching to IPv6 now

[Damien Morris]

On 15/04/11 8:07 AM, "Mark Smith"
<nanog at 85d5b20a518b8f6864949bd940457dc124746ddc.nosense.org> wrote:

>>Why is it disturbing?
>> 
>> When at short we all know that we need to make the jump to light speed
>>at some time in the future, but what the article states is quite true in
>>fact ­ most connections are using nat.
>> 
>> The amount of ipv6 hype of late reminds of the year 2000 bug and all
>>the associated bull that went down with it.
>
>Do you have that opinion about Y2K because there where very little
>consequences? Perhaps you don't appreciate the amount of work that
>occurred *so* there where very little consequences. Lack of (or very

Ah heck it's Friday so why not risk stirring the pot a little ;)

I'm as pro-ipv6 as it gets, but the article isn't totally unreasonable and
shouldn't be shouted down so quickly. For SME and home users that's
probably more or less how it /will/ go.

As long as people (mostly telcos, content providers, what have you) don't
see it as an excuse to stall or not worry about IPv6 today then no harm no
foul. I think the larger businesses /are/ planning for, rolling out and
testing IPv6 already (we are). Such an article won't change the direction
of Big Telco #21.

We often joke about the hype vs reality of Y2K but a lot of work really
did go on behind the scenes to avoid disaster in 2000 so we should
probably compliment those that did perform mitigation a bit more and joke
about it a bit less. There's no 'drop dead' date with IPv6 like there was
with January 1, 2000 so IPv6 can make a slow, steady transition out into
the mainstream. 

I still have full confidence that it will happen. At first with some ugly
hacks popping up here and there, some IPv4 stragglers, but in the end IPv6
will overtake IPv4 and we'll watch IPv4 slowly be put to rest.

That's probably the best way to look at things - start charting v6 vs v4
usage and over time, ensure that they're converging and eventually
crossing over.

Cheers,
Damien.