IPv6 Adoption Advances Thanks to U.S. Government

The U.S. Government has put in place an IPv6 mandate that cam into affect on September 30th. That new mandate requires all government agencies to have their public facing websites and email services available over IPv6.

The 2012 IPv6 mandate is not the first, or the last IPv6 transition mandate from the U.S. Government.

Four years ago, in 2008, the U.S. Government also had an IPv6 mandate in place. That particular mandate, required U.S. Government agencies to have IPv6-ready equipment enabled in their infrastructure.

There are a number of difference between the 2008 mandate and the current 2012 mandate.

According to David Helms, Vice President, Cyber Security Center of Excellence at Salient Federal Solutions, the current IPv6 mandate has been especially well constructed and conceived. He explained that as part of the mandate, every agency had to appoint an IPv6 transition manager, which provides for some accountability. As well, he noted that the technical milestone of delivering web, DNS and email over IPv6 are all accomplish-able goals. That said, the mandate itself doesn’t necessarily carry with it any immediate penalties for non-compliance.

“With the last mandate it’s not like the hammer of Thor came down and punished agencies for not complying,” Helms said.

Read the full story at Enterprise Networking Planet:
U.S. Government Paves the Way to IPv6 with Mandate Compliance

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.