Region ill-prepared for IPv6: APNIC to take a lead role

Stuart Corner
Friday, 06 March 2009 02:01

IT Industry - Market

A survey commissioned by APNIC and conducted by KPMG of 601 respondents from 44 different Asia Pacific economies has revealed that nearly two thirds are not adequately prepared for the transition to IPv6.

Fifty two percent identified themselves as network providers. Other respondents included Internet bodies, vendors, governments, educators and content providers. Sixty three percent of respondents had not yet deployed IPv6 in their networks, 37 percent either have, or are immediately ready to deploy IPv6 and 54 percent said their organisations already have the knowledge and expertise required to move to IPv6, but Only 40 percent of the respondents indicated they already have a formal plan for IPv6 deployment.

APNIC is claiming that the survey gives it a clear mandate to assist in the transition to IPv6, The statement "APNIC should have a bigger role in promoting IPv6 deployment within the AP region" producing a mean response of 8.44, indicating the respondents strongly agreed with the proposition. "The community...[is] requesting help across several levels from IPv6 promotion, to training and education as well as more practical support to infrastructure services, such as Internet exchanges, root server deployments, and routing registries," said Paul Wilson, director general of APNIC. "It is clear that APNIC must analyse the operational and business impediments to IPv6 deployment and assist the community to overcome these ahead of the IPv4 free address pool exhaustion," he concluded.

APNIC says it plans to target those organisations that have not yet developed a plan for IPv6 deployment and assist them to access the information and training they require to formulate one. "Many network operators do not realise they can reduce the cost of IPv6 deployment if they move quickly to incorporate the transition into their regular upgrade cycle."

"There was also a high level of agreement that government should assist in the transition to IPv6 and there was a strong call for government to require IPv6 compliance with entities under their control," said Wilson. "APNIC needs to liaise with regulators and government organizations to build their understanding of the issue and how they can provide the support that stakeholders need for a smooth IPv6 transition."