Cisco announced new products and services to smooth the enterprise shift
from IPv4 to IPv6. The offerings address findings from a new Cisco study that
reveals IT leaders’ concerns about the security, deployment and maintenance of
IPv6 and their intent to seek outside expertise to oversee the changeover.
When the free pool of IPv4 addresses
ran dry earlier this year, transitioning to IPv6 became the only option
to ensure long-term business continuity. The effort requires unifying IPv4 and
IPv6 across networks, software and applications.
To address the unique challenges this presents, Cisco has a broad
portfolio of switches, routers and security devices that have passed both
international IPv6 testing as well as U.S. government testing. This
substantial portfolio was highly visible earlier this month, when Cisco, as one
of the key players in the Interop trade show’s network, collaborated with
numerous vendors to make the InteropNet the
first end-to-end trade show network to run IPv4 and IPv6 side by side,
delivering data, voice and video services to more than 15,000 attendees and 400
exhibitors.
Cisco is extending its IPv6 leadership with new solutions that enable
customers to ease and accelerate the transition from IPv4.
The new offerings
arrive at a time when many organizations are in the midst of IPv6 planning and
network transitions. In late April, Cisco surveyed 101 senior U.S.-based information
technology leaders.
A majority of IT leaders (78 percent) said their organizations have made
or are currently making the transition to IPv6. Most IPv6 transition work (94
percent) began within the past two years, while those who had not yet begun
said they planned to wait at least nine months from the time they were surveyed
before beginning.
More than half (55 percent) have either sought or plan to seek the
assistance of outside consultants during the transition. More than half (54
percent) deemed the move essential to the organization, and nearly
three-quarters (73 percent) were concerned about missing out on the benefits,
according to the Cisco survey.
IPv4 has served us remarkably well for the past 30 years. Moving to a
new version will not be easy, but it is essential to the continued growth of
the Internet. Customers are able to preserve existing investments by auditing
existing systems and utilizing transition technologies where appropriate;
prepare by rolling out IPv6 alongside IPv4 in a strategic manner; and will
ultimately prosper with the transition to a full IPv6-enabled Internet. This
will allow them to continue to build larger, more
efficient networks that enable business innovation,” said Mark
Townsley, distinguished engineer, Cisco.
By TelecomLead.com Team
[email protected]
