Vint Cerf to evangelise IPv6 in New Zealand

Stuart Corner
Friday, 07 August 2009 07:46

IT Industry - Strategy

Vint Cerf now 'chief Internet evangelist' at Google but better known as the 'Father of the Internet' will be a keynote speaker at an IPv6 conference being staged in Auckland and Wellington this month to progress New Zealand's IPv6 migration plans.

New Zealand ICT minister Steven Joyce will address the Wellington event and IPv6 expert Professor Hiroshi Esaki from Tokyo University will keynote the Christchurch event via videoconference. Other speakers include Cisco senior technical leader, Tony Hain, and Tony Hill and Kevin Karp from Australian organisation IPv6Now.

Cerf said that New Zealand was well placed to join leading countries in accelerating its adoption of IPv6. "The great thing about New Zealand is that it is possible to bring the key public and private decision makers into a room, over a series of only three days, and explore and debate an issue of importance to the nation."

However, as iTWire has previously commented, progress towards IPv6 in New Zealand, until recently at least, has lagged well behind initiatives in Australia. It was only in December 2008 that major ICT industry and stakeholder organisations in New Zealand agreed on the need for a transition plan from IPv4 to IPv6 that would include education, and identification and removal of roadblocks to IPv6 deployment.

Two years ago iTWire reported on New Zealand taking its first steps towards planning for IPv6 noting that "IPv6 planning in Australia is much more advanced, The first planning meeting was held in October 2005 and in June 2006 The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU), au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA), the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (AEEMA) and BuildersNet Pty Ltd launched a joint project with Federal Government funding to develop new business models for adoption of IPv6 and tools for transition planning."

The New Zealand event www.ipv6.org.nz/hui.html is being overseen by the New Zealand IPv6 Steering Group, convened by the Ministry of Economic Development. According to InternetNZ it will "tackle head-on the need to develop roadmaps for industry and corporate networks to implement IPv6 in New Zealand. Survey data on IPv6 readiness in New Zealand will also be released at the event."