Can you imagine your city running out of addresses?  Imagine building a new home or office but having no way to tell anyone how to find it.  Imagine this happening only a year from now and you have little time to ramp up on the solution.

It’s not imaginary.  This is exactly what is happening with the Internet.  The current Internet protocol (IPv4) has been used since 1981 and is what allows us to find anything on the Internet.  One of the problems with IPv4 was an inherent limitation on the number of addresses that could be deployed on that version.

The successor – Ipv6 – solves not only the “IPv4 address exhaustion” problem but also streamlines how addresses are assigned, makes multicasting part of the base spec (rather than an option), and advantages in mobility and extensibility.

Migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 has become a growing priority.  The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) recommends that all servers in the Internet be prepared to serve only IPv6 clients by January of 2012.

You can use the GogoTraining course TCP/IP In Action taught by industry expert David Zimny as a way to get a head-start on learning and understanding IPv6.

This course covers practical methods for migrating to IPv6 and offers several approaches for seamless communications between IPv4 and IPv6.  A great deal more is covered regarding this important topic, so learn more about prerequisites, objectives and an outline.  You may also view some course previews!

Do you have a local group discussing IPv6 migration?  Share a link to it here as a comment.