But are we really relying on IPv4 when at least 90% of our network traffic has seamlessly transitioned to IPv6? It's almost funny to say this, but it seems like IPv4 is already legacy for us.
Sure, some external websites haven't yet converted to IPv6, so the stack falls back to IPv4, but for the most part (and 90% is probably a very conservative estimate) IPv6 is king across the WAN.
The downside to IPv6 is that it's a steep learning curve, and virtually nobody else in the org is even marginally familiar with it. If you're familiar with bit math, IPv6 is a bit easier, but then you get into routing and DHCPv6 which tend to differ significantly in some areas from their v4 counterparts. Also, I'm finding that certain vendors' (cough Cisco) IPv6 implementations aren't nearly as tight as they claim. It wasn't until July 2010 that Cisco really implemented DHCPv6 in a usable manner in IOS.
Sure, some external websites haven't yet converted to IPv6, so the stack falls back to IPv4, but for the most part (and 90% is probably a very conservative estimate) IPv6 is king across the WAN.
The downside to IPv6 is that it's a steep learning curve, and virtually nobody else in the org is even marginally familiar with it. If you're familiar with bit math, IPv6 is a bit easier, but then you get into routing and DHCPv6 which tend to differ significantly in some areas from their v4 counterparts. Also, I'm finding that certain vendors' (cough Cisco) IPv6 implementations aren't nearly as tight as they claim. It wasn't until July 2010 that Cisco really implemented DHCPv6 in a usable manner in IOS.
Now if only Apple iOS devices supported IPv6 ;)