In 2011, the global free pool of available IPv4 addresses ran dry. That doesn’t mean that IPv4 addresses are no longer valid, it just means that in order for big networks to scale, they need to start using the next generation IPv6 addresses. But what about small business users?
IPv4 provided more than 4.3 billion addresses, while IPv6 — with its 128-bit addressing scheme — can support 340 trillion, trillion, trillion (34 x 10 to the 38th power) Internet addresses. Networking vendor Kerio is now adding IPv6 support to its small business UTM (Unified Theat Management) firewall appliance with its Kerio Control 7.3 update.
Kerio leverages Linux and specifically components of the Debian Linux distribution for its UTM device. The Linux operating system supports IPv6 as well as IPv4.
Though Kerio is adding IPv6 support for SMBs, that doesn’t necessarily mean that small businesses need to be moving to IPv6 today.
“We’re definitely not telling small businesses to go out and use IPv6,” James Gudeli, vice president of business development at Kerio, told InternetNews.com. “We want to make sure that people are aware of IPv6 traffic on their network.”
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.