IPv6 Training Resources

You would think that with the announcements that IPv6 is coming “any day now” for the past 10 years that organizations would be more knowledgeable about IPv6. However, just the opposite is true and organizations are facing an “IPv6 brain drain”. Organizations who have failed to get their IT staff critical knowledge about IPv6 will soon find themselves in desperate need of IPv6 experience. This article catalogs sources of IPv6 training that will help your staff and thus your organization prepare for this transition.

The Rocky Mountain IPv6 Task Force is hosting their 4th annual IPv6 Summit event in Denver Colorado on April 25-27. The Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit is the largest annual IPv6 event in North America. This event is designed to educate and update you on the current state of IPv6 adoption. Attendees will learn about what other organizations are doing to prepare for the migration to IPv6 and learn from those who are already utilizing the benefits of IPv6. This event fosters collaborate with colleagues who are actively working on IPv6 research and implementation and learn about IPv6 technology from industry experts. New this year is an optional pre-conference tutorial on the first day. The pre-conference tutorial includes a full day of training, materials and meals. However, that filled up quickly and registration is now closed for that tutorial event. The 2-day conference begins on April 26 and includes a day of Enterprise and Service Provider tutorials on the first day. Day 2 of the conference covers multi-track subjects with expert speakers. The best part is that the 2-day conference now only costs $249 (late registration starting April 1st is $349). More information is available at the RMv6TF’s web site.

Immediately following that event, the University of Ottawa, Canada is having an IPv6 event on April 29th. The “2011 IPv6 Summit.ca” will feature training for both management/business leaders as well as technical staff searching for knowledge of IPv6. This event is being organized by the Ottawa-Canada Linux User’s Group which shows that IPv6 isn’t just a problem for the “network people” to solve. Organizations need IPv6 skills in every part of their IT organization. Furthermore, I you live in Canada, you are encouraged to get involved in IPv6 Canada which is also a regional chapter of the North American IPv6 Task Force.

If you are interested in learning and collaborating locally with other IPv6-knowledgeable folks, you can seek out your local IPv6 Forum group. In North America there are many regional IPv6 Task Force groups. The California IPv6 Task Force and the Texas IPv6 Task Force are also likely to have IPv6 events later in 2011.

Other active IPv6 Task Force groups include the Hawaii IPv6 Task Force, Northwest IPv6 Task Force, MidAtlantic IPv6 Task Force, IPv6 Task Force Mexico and Mexico IPv6 Forum.

Light Reading Live has their “IPv6 2011: The Time is Now!” conference in New York on July 14th. This is an IPv6 conference that focuses on enterprises, service providers, and content providers. This event will have many top-notch speakers because it is likely to be the only IPv6 event on the East-coast this year. This event is very well organized and it is hosted at the Hilton New York so it is likely to be the fanciest IPv6 conference this year.

Command Information has been offering IPv6 training for many years. Command Information currently offers three IPv6 classes.

” Building IPv6 Networks

” IPv6 Security Bootcamp

” IPv6 Fundamentals + Security Bootcamp

Command Information offers these classes at your location to minimize the travel for your staff. Command Information brings in good quality IPv6 presenters and equipment to your site and has the ability to tailor the training to your organization’s specific needs.

There is also a web site that is cataloging all the IPv6 training that is available. This is a good resource to check for internationally-available IPv6 training companies like Erion and Sunny Connection AG.

There is also a new Cisco Press book that will be published in the next month. The book is titled “IPv6 for Enterprise Networks” and is written by Shannon McFarland, Muninder Sambi, Nikhil Sharma, Sanjay Hooda. This is a fantastic lineup of IPv6 experts and this books is going to provide excellent technical advice to help your enterprise organization successfully deploy IPv6. I have already pre-ordered my copy and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

Regardless of how you go about getting IPv6 training for your IT staff, the important thing is that you don’t delay getting them the training they need. You should also get IPv6 training that fits your staff’s specific roles. It wouldn’t make sense to have your system administrators attend Cisco’s IPv6 Fundamentals, Design and Deployment (IP6FD) 3.0 class. You should get IPv6 training for your application developers, your system administrators, and your security teams. You also should not forget to provide IPv6-specific training to you NOC, Helpdesk, and Service Desk staff.

Scott