IPv6: NZ Gov't will lead by example not by regulation

Stuart Corner
Monday, 24 August 2009 10:38

IT Industry - Strategy

The New Zealand Government has impressed on the country's business community the importance of speedy adoption of IPv6, but says it's role towards achieving this will be confined to awareness raising and leading by example, not by regulation.

A New Zealand IPv6 Steering Group, convened by the Ministry of Economic Development, last week staged a 'Hui' (conference)  on IPv6 . Addressing the conference, acting minister for communications and information technology, Nathan Guy, said: "The rationale for these Hui is to convince you as key business decision-makers that there is a business case to be made for IPv6 adoption...We need to have IPv6 widely adopted if we are to be able to take full advantage of the mobile Internet and of the 'Internet of things' involving such things as intelligent houses and intelligent transport systems. A key driver for IPv6 is to make possible new services and business opportunities on a large scale, such as networked sensors for industrial or home automation services."

He added : "the minister for communications and information technology does not believe that regulatory intervention is appropriate. Adoption of IPv6 needs to be lead by the private sector. The private sector must recognise that adopting IPv6 is in their own best interests to protect their investment in online capabilities into the future. Issues of advantages and disadvantages, costs, risks, timing, methodology etc, have to be for each enterprise to assess for itself. There is no single best answer for all."

He said the government would assist in raising awareness, and in providing leadership, by getting its own house in order. "The KAREN [academic research] network has been IPv6 capable from its inception. The government spends around $2 billion on ICT each year, about 40 percent of the total New Zealand expenditure on ICT...We are initiating a syndicated procurement programme where government agencies with expertise in a particular area will coordinate purchasing strategies across government. All of these initiatives offer opportunities for the government to take a leading role by future proofing with the adoption of IPv6 throughout the state sector.

"A recent example of this is the one dot govt suite of services which is replacing the Government Shared Network. One dot govt Internet services are IPv6 ready today and the standard wide area network offering is also IPv6 capable. We view this as a potential vehicle to provide a default IPv6 gateway for state sector organisations. The gateway will be complemented with a standards-based network interface to allow interoperability with other standards-based implementations. This will enable increased collaboration both within and across government entities, which should help to deliver improved services to the public."

He added that his own department, the Department of Internal Affairs, was exploring opportunities to implement IPv6 within its own network in order to build capability and develop a model for the wider public sector.

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.