Image: Tony O'Sullivan
RETN’s Tony O’Sullivan explains the benefits for companies of switching to IPv6 sooner rather than later.
By the end of 2024, it’s projected there will be 207bn connected devices globally. Despite ongoing exponential growth in devices and traffic volumes, internet usage and adoption are not unproblematic across the board – it’s easy to forget that the infrastructure supporting the internet’s use comprises an interconnected web of disparate networks, all of which rely on complex protocols to run smoothly and communicate with one another.
The latest of these protocols, named IPv6, was developed and formalised in the late 1990s as a replacement for its predecessor, IPv4. It was seen as an answer to the easily foreseeable problem of ‘IP address exhaustion’ since IPv4 was developed at a time when the true scale of the global internet could not have been predicted and 4bn possible addresses were considered sufficient.
Shockingly, despite IPv4 reaching full capacity in 2010, it continues to not only co-exist with IPv6, but outweigh its use – IPv6 adoption is at just above 40pc despite the myriad benefits it offers. While the issue doesn’t present an existential threat to the internet, those that bury their heads in the sand today are missing an open goal and risk real problems later.
Why adoption is needed now
One of the unfortunate side effects of slow IPv6 adoption is that it results in inflation of the price of IPv4 address space. By some estimates, this has skyrocketed from $6 to nearly $60 per IP address in the last ten years, creating an artificial sense of value around a protocol that is no longer fit for purpose. This has led to shady business in the black market and increased the risk of fraud and other illegal activities to get around IPv4’s limitations.
This, of course, isn’t to say that the reason to increase adoption is to avoid the negatives of IPv4. Whilst this is a benefit, it’s important to emphasise the flip side, namely that the IPv6 protocol carries with it many advantages from which organisations of all sizes and shapes can benefit.
For example, IPv6 allows for more efficient routing without fragmenting packets, a longer life for network equipment due to better summarisation, lower latency, easier set-up and maintenance, and greater cost-efficiency and performance. Add to these a far larger address space and capacity, improved security, and better network auto-configuration capabilities, and it quickly becomes clear why organisations need to be sitting up and taking notice.
More broadly, IPv6 adoption is needed alongside other modernisation initiatives at a crucial time for the internet, which faces the urgent need for a more scalable, secure and efficient networking infrastructure. In the same way that you would maintain a car by scheduling regular servicing appointments, businesses need to understand and act on the fact that times have changed, and a new era is upon us.
How governments can lead the charge
Clearly, IPv6 adoption is a global issue that requires international cooperation. In fact, the full benefits touched on above simply cannot be realised without collaboration across the board.
Although pick-up in some regions, such as smaller Asian countries, is slower than average, we have already seen some nations take up a leading role in the transition. For example, the Czech Republic has set a mandatory time frame for the switch over and has committed to stop providing its services over IPv4 on 6 June 2032.
Simply put, governments across the globe have a golden opportunity to follow in the footsteps of those leading the charge by incentivising adoption. Much like the widely publicised PSTN switch-off and sunsetting of 2G and 3G networks in the telecoms world, the IPv6 transition should be seen as a non-negotiable next step to usher in the future of the internet. Several nations have been ‘talking the talk’ in recent years, but it’s time for more to ‘walk the walk’ on digital transformation with similar commitments.
Looking ahead
From my own experience over recent years, I can see that clients are, for the most part, ready for the transition themselves. What’s more, internet service providers and mobile operators overall have been quicker in their take-up than most, with larger enterprises dragging behind.
Hyperscalers like Meta, Alphabet and Amazon are making a concerted push, but more can be done in terms of transferring from a mindset of hesitancy to one of ambition. Enterprises on the whole should mirror this by taking proactive steps to modernise rather than waiting until they have no choice. For example, Meta released a report last quarter announcing the removal of IPv4 infrastructure from its edge network.
Another crucial part of the conversation around IPv6 adoption is that artificial inflation of IPv4’s value is antithetical to market innovation. While the internet should at its core allow wider accessibility to global market players looking to enter and disrupt established markets, stunted take-up means that many firms both small and large are effectively ‘priced out’ of the industry.
By making a concerted effort now at this critical juncture, governments and businesses have an unmissable opportunity in an increasingly challenging economic climate.
Looking to the future, I’m confident that in five years the age of IPv4 will be long behind us and we will have a community that encourages and rewards healthy market competition and greater accessibility across all industries. A more robust, secure and scalable internet infrastructure is a vital component of this progress.
Tony O’Sullivan is the CEO of international network services provider RETN. As well as leading the RETN team, he is instrumental in the company’s pricing, interconnection and network strategies. He is also a qualified F.C.C.A accountant.
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