Google has announced that it is now available over IPv6. Specifically you can access Google search with the next generation Internet protocol. To hit Google on IPv6 you must first be running IPv6 though (ipv6.google.com).
While this is ‘good’ news I suppose it also exposes the fundamental flaw and issue with IPv6 as it currently stands.
Why aren’t more sites available on IPv6? (and why is Google doing this now?).
The problem is simple and complex at the same time. While the US Government itself is moving to IPv6, US based enterprises are not. (It’s a problem that I’ve been researching for the last few weeks in fact).
And why should they?
Sure the ‘chicken littles‘ of the world are saying the sky is falling and we’re running out of IPv4 address space (which is true). But the reality in this part of the world is that we’ve got enough IPv4 to keep us from feeling any shortage. The reality is every organization in this part of the world has already figured out the IP address issues by using NAT and port forwarding scenarios that provide an abundance of addressing options.
So YES, great to see Google jump publicly on the IPv6 bandwagon, but it would be better to see you (yes you dear reader!) jump on the IPv6 bandwagon too.
