Top 5 Misperceptions about Enterprise IPv6 Deployment - #5
Over the last 9+ years of doing enterprise IPv6 deployments with customers I have gathered up a list of common misperceptions that the industry, media, vendors and customers have regarding IPv6 deployment in the enterprise. This series of blog posts will focus on the Top 5 misperceptions. Like any good “Top X” list, we start at the bottom. The No. 5 entry on the list is the statement I used to hear all the time and still do on occasion: “I use RFC1918 address space internally and use NAT/PAT/Proxies at the edge with enough public IPv4 address space. I don’t need IPv6”.
I am hearing this less and less now days, but some still hang on to this idea. This is a truthful statement indeed. As an enterprise you probably are running private address space and have boatloads of it left. You have a /24 or something from an RIR (Regional Internet Registries) or from your ISP(s) for publically routable IPv4 space and you translate at the edge. That is fine and dandy.
The issue is that you have zero preparedness to support those already doing IPv6 on the Internet or soon will be. What about those mobile users that end up getting an IPv6-only address? Yes, you’re laughing now. Go talk to the massive mobile operators and check out their plans for doing this in the not-so-distant future (within 18 months). Yes, some of them have plans to run their own NAT64 service just in case your enterprise does not have IPv6 enabled, but don’t bet on all of them providing this service. Here is the issue, what if a mobile operator or other provider moves to IPv6-only (i.e. the ISP link I have at my house) for part of their network and they don’t provide a translation service in the cloud?
The point is that you, the enterprise (or any Internet-facing organization) IS RESPONSIBLE for your own content access and services (Even if using a hosting or cloud provider – choose wisely). No one else is. Did you ask for IPv4 address exhaustion? No. But it is a problem you have to deal with nonetheless.
The second part of this is IPv4 address exhaustion within IANA and “stage 3” within certain RIRs (i.e. APNIC – Stage 3). If you procrastinate long enough (Yes , I mean you) you may end up in a situation where you burn your public IPv4 space, need more, and end up getting a fraction of what you need from your RIR/ISP. And if your RIR is in stage 3 (see link above) then you may only get a/22 and only get it once and then no more.
Make it easy on yourself and just start down the path of IPv6 using baby steps and just be prepared (more on what that means later).
