IPv6 could 'hex your network'

The migration to IPv6 is a hot topic on the minds of most networking professionals, but many still haven't made the move over.

Large companies with big corporate networks need to start thinking about it, however, as the final IPv4 addresses have now run out.

This was the view of Steve Garrison, vice president of marketing for Infoblox, known for technology which binds IP addresses to domain names.

"IPv6 can hex your network if you are not prepared," he said during an interview at NetEvents in Barcelona. "It is going to be a long transition and complex."

Garrison claimed customers were concerned about it and were asking him if now was the time to change to IPv6 or whether to wait, but he claimed it was important to take things one step at a time.

"You should look at the gateway first," he said. "Within an enterprise, you can create your own address pool anyway but when you go out into the wider area network other service providers are using IPv6 so you will see IPv6 packets coming in."

"Service providers are doing it now so the enterprise needs to look. It does depend on how much you leverage your service provider but you will need to begin thinking about it."

However, despite warning enterprises to start looking, he said the industry needed to take his view and "separate good marketing from hype."

"No planes will fall from the sky [and] your iPhone will still connect to a network," said Garrison.

"Should we all run to the store and buy new tools or be pragmatic? It has been 16 years coming and the address pool really has run out but customers must be [sensible] in this process and just think about it."