Majority not prepared for IPv6 transition

88% of business networks were not fully ready for a change to IPv6, with two thirds (66.1%) saying their networks are only 0-20% ready, despite the fact that the last blocks of IPv4 addresses have already been allocated, according to Ipswitch.

The full results were:

• 0-20% - 66.1%
• 20-40% - 9.6%
• 40-60% - 6.5%
• 60-80% - 5.8%
• 80-100% - 12.0%

“While IPv6 provides the ability to greatly expand the number of devices on the Internet, it also poses migration, compatibility and management challenges for today’s IPv4-based networks,” said Kevin Gillis, vice president of product management and strategy at Ipswitch’s Network Management Division.

“Our poll shows the need for companies to develop transition strategies in order to increase IPv6 readiness among enterprise networks and prevent any future disruption to mission-critical systems.”

IPv6 is a next-generation IP protocol designed to replace IPv4, the Internet protocol most commonly used throughout the world and the foundation for most Internet communications. With the number of available IPv4 addresses quickly running out, transitioning to IPv6 will soon become a requirement for enterprise networks.

IPv6 enables significant expansion of the IP addresses needed to accommodate the continuously growing number of worldwide Internet users, and provides additional security features for Internet traffic. Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold IT management platform has supported IPv6 for five years in order to help enterprises ease the transition to the new protocol.