IPv6

From the WAN mailbag: IPv6, WAN jobs, the carrier connection

In order to succeed, journalism has to be a two-way street.  Reporters talk to people, these people provide the framework for an article, and then people respond to the article through letters, email and op-ed articles.

Service journalism - the kind that populates the virtual pages of SearchenterpriseWAN.com - is even more dependent on reader interaction since it is more focused on news you can use rather than the traditional who did what to whom and why approach.  The readership is obviously more technical and more interested in news and tips that can be utilized in their day-to-day jobs, and more willing to share observations from the WAN front lines with other readers.

The following is an  edited  sampling of some of the letters and comments we received from the SearchenterpriseWAN.com readership over the past several weeks via email, the social networking and, yes, even through old school mail routes.

On a recent series of articles and a video report focusing on the move toward IPv6 and the impending IP addressing crisis:

I believe that moving to ipv6 is almost impossible now.  As far as i can see all relevant network equipment was already adopted few years ago, but applications are still coded (many of them badly) for v4.   More important,  it scares many network administrators.  So, unless something very unexpected happens,  we are going to stay with the v4 infrastructure for a very long time.

- G. Michaelov, Technical account manager, Aman Computers

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I’m not seeing a massive shift toward IPv6. Because most enterprises NAT a small set of public IP addresses to a large set of private addresses, the urgency of moving off IPv4 is just not there.

- T. Yohe, VP engineering, Stampede Technologies

In response to a LinkedIN query on improvements in the WAN jobs market and related article an apparent thaw in WAN employment opportunities:

Interestingly, WAN performance will usually be an issue for companies that have gone through a consolidation process.  I’ve always approached WDS / APM as an enabler for companies to deploy other technologies on the WAN, and also as a way to better manage what they already have.  So,  based on this, even in a recession, these types of technologies should be high on the list of ‘things to address’ in any organization that’s connected with some geographical distance between sites.
Interestingly on looking around ‘personally’ for opportunities in this area, most if not all of the companies I spoke to (Vendor and SI), were looking to address recruitment again in Q4 09. Some of the SP’s I’ve engaged with are also actively building an ‘application aware’ service, which should generate some interest from the bandwidth provider side.

- A. Ford, proposition manager, Telindus

In response to a series discussing key points in selecting, deploying and ‘future-proofing’ your WAN solution, as well as a look at FTP file transfer alternatives:

I just want to expand on the point about carrier/cloud/managed deployments as we are seeing an increased demand in this area from business to service smaller offices.  It is really difficult for companies to justify spending thousands of dollars at each small office (typically using DSL) for WAN optimization gear.  The compelling value of carrier deployments is in the centralization of gear in POPs around the globe so one can take advantage of economies of scale in being able to share the WAN optimization equipment investment across a number of remote locations.

While there are trade offs in that you cannot take advantage of compressing that local circuit to save on bandwidth spend, end users can still benefit from increased application performance across the WAN.  Hybrid solutions are a great way to optimize the cost/benefit trade off.  Use CPE where the bandwidth savings due to compression can be significant while using a network approach to optimize traffic for smaller offices where CPE expense cannot be justified.

- K. Lynch, product manager, Virtela

Time is now to put more WOW into your WAN

It is a bit ironic that as attendees at the FutureNet conference in Boston this week dined on Mexican fare as part of Cinco de Mayo festivities, just outside and within reach were gallons of hand sanitizer liquid. 

There were even small bottles of the stuff positioned at the registration desk, as people lined up to pick up their badges and dive into sessions that explored everything from building cost effective WANs to MPLS backhaul networks.  

The H1N1 swine flu was not officially on the agenda here as network engineers and technical specialists gathered to discuss the latest trends and developments in SIP trunking, telecom convergence and 4G mobile.  Nothing to sneeze at when it comes to keeping the corporate network up to snuff and preparing for such things as convergence, increasing numbers of teleworkers  and even the spread of green IT across distributed networks.

A lot of the first-day discussions focused on the evolution of WAN architectures, especially as companies explore emerging next generation Ethernet technologies, MPLS and VPLS alternatives.  Most enterprise architectures have extended way beyond the typical LAN, said Nemertes Research analyst Irwin Lazar in his presentation.  Companies do it because they have to, he noted, because if they do not the result can be a loss of customers, potential business and eventually market share. 

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