NTT launches IPv6 firewall service

NTT continues its role as a pioneer of IPv6 technology in the United States with its recent announcement of the first managed firewall service for the long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

NTT was the first - and for many years the only - service provider in the United States to offer IPv6 access. Now NTT America, the U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications, is offering the first managed security service that supports IPv6.

IPv6 promises easier administration, tighter security and an enhanced addressing scheme when compared with IPv4, the Internet's current protocol. IPv6, which uses a 128-bit addressing scheme, supports an almost limitless number of uniquely identified systems on the 'Net, while IPv4 supports only a few billion systems because it uses a 32-bit addressing scheme.

Available for more than a decade, IPv6 has been slow to catch on in the United States although it is gaining popularity in Asia and Europe. The U.S. market for IPv6-enabled products and services got a boost earlier this year with the decision by the federal government to migrate to IPv6 by 2008.

NTT has teamed up with Virtela, a VPN service provider in Denver, to offer its IPv6 managed firewall service. NTT's Intellisecurity IPv6-enabled Managed Firewall is managed and monitored by Virtela, but customers can access the firewall service through NTT's Security Zone Web portal.

NTT officials hope the new managed firewall service will encourage U.S. companies to begin moving production applications to IPv6. Until now, one major obstacle for corporate network managers has been a lack of understanding of IPSec, the security protocol that is mandated for use in IPv6.

"With IPv4, users have a firewall and generally feel comfortable about that. They don't have the same comfort level with IPv6," says Stan Barber, vice president of engineering operations for NTT America. "This is an issue that our prospects have brought to us."

NTT's new managed firewall service is part of a broader effort to bring more IPv6-enabled features and services to market that customers rely on in IPv4.

NTT says pricing of the service will be similar to what it charges for IPv4 managed firewall service.

Virtela officials expect that early customers of the IPv6 managed firewall service will include government contractors, hardware and software manufacturers, and other enterprises that want to be on the cutting edge of network technology.

"There are naysayers for IPv6, but there were naysayers out there for MPLS, too," says John Powell, vice president of global channels at Virtela. "This service is going to help with the early adopters who are rolling out IPv6. It's one less barrier for them to overcome."

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.