VARs Can No Longer Wait On IPv6

Like ProCurve Networking by Hewlett-Packard Co., other vendors such as Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., Nortel Networks, Toronto, and Extreme Networks, Santa Clara, Calif., have added IPv6 support to their portfolios of networking gear.

Christopher Rajiah, Extreme's director of North American channels, said solution providers planning and designing a network in 2008 should take IPv6 seriously, "especially if they expect their network to sustain any level of growth within the next five years."

He added the onus should also fall on vendors to provide software and hardware support for IPv4 and IPv6, especially with Ethernet switches. Support for IPv6 is significant, he said, because information within an IPv6 packet is different from that found in an IPv4 packet. The IPv6 Forum estimates only 19 percent of IPv4 address space remains and all addresses under IPv4 will be gone come 2012.

Currently, IPv4 supports roughly 4.3 billion unique IP addresses throughout global networks. Most of those addresses are accounted for and cannot expand, hindering an IPv4 network from future growth. With the depletion of addresses not far off, IPv6 should be top of mind for networking VARs. In addition, networks now need to support an emerging category of IP devices, like mobile phones, eBook readers and others. The influx of devices and applications makes IPv6 critical to the future because it is capable of delivering a boost in unique address space.

"Network switching products that don't support IPv4 and IPv6 in both hardware and software will deliver limited functionality and less than ideal performance," Rajiah said. "Performance is central to the future network, as converged communications traffic—IP voice and video—continues to explode within enterprise LANs and metro-area networks."

Organizations will rely on VARs to ease the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, he added. "VARs who are not delivering solutions that are capable of a smooth IPv4 to IPv6 transition should be gathering information and finding the right network vendor to partner with."