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Major network and security vendors have raced against the clock to inject support for a new IP-addressing scheme--Internet Protocol version 6--into flagship firewall lines to help federal agencies meet a looming White House deadline.
Federal IT buyers have embraced new IPv6 firewalls, mostly to check off a box during the procurement process and stay out of trouble with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which is demanding support for IPv6 by June 2008. For the most part, agencies aren't yet focused on IPv6's future potential to improve encryption and authentication and to boost government efforts to deploy videoconferencing, streaming audio and true peer-to-peer applications.
6-Point IPv6 Guidance |
What agencies are focusing on are the migration challenges they face in absorbing IPv6-supported firewalls and other networking gear. Those challenges, though, are creating opportunities for service providers steeped in knowledge of IPv6 and those familiar with issues around the transition to IPv6 from its predecessor, IPv4.
"Many government institutions will need help with deployment, upgrades, audits and integration with existing infrastructures," says Robert Whiteley, senior analyst of enterprise networking at Forrester Research, a market-research firm in Cambridge, Mass. "Agencies will also need someone to verify the architecture for compliance and compatibility."In addition, government IT officials will look to VARs to help clear up lingering confusion over the new protocol and to clarify exactly what it is IPv6 will accomplish beyond satisfying the OMB.
IPv6 is an advanced IP addressing scheme hatched more than a decade ago. Government and industry groups then predicted that the number of networked devices requiring IP addresses--everything from firewalls to cellphones--would quickly outstrip the number of addresses available under IPv4. That shortage has yet to materialize, since IP addresses remain plentiful, except in populous Asia, which is saturated with electronic devices.
Absent an immediate need for rapid commercial adoption of IPv6, the OMB mandate has shaped the protocol's evolution and forced vendors to incorporate IPv6.
"Lack of IPv6 support is going to be an ongoing liability that's only going to get worse," says Michael Warfield, senior researcher at IBM Internet Security Systems' X-Force Threat Analysis Service. "It won't be that IPv6 support opens doors. Instead, lack of IPv6 compatibility may well begin to slam them shut."
In terms of what IPv6 will provide agencies immediately in the way of new functionality or applications, the short answer is "not much."
"It's important to note that IPv6 will not have the vast impact that was originally prognosticated," Whiteley says. "Really, IPv6 is needed for one of two reasons: Either your organization is running out of IPv4 address space or you're mandated to support IPv6 for federal government interconnection."
NEXT: Long-term gains
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