How to Convince Your Boss to Implement IPv6 in Your Company

30/05/2018

The increase in the cost of IPv4 addresses on the secondary market and the significant growth in the use of IPv6 in Latin America and the Caribbean are two powerful arguments to convince business executives in the region to deploy the latest version of the Internet Protocol as soon as possible, said Lee Howard, Director of RETEVIA, during his presentation at LACNIC 29.

Howard shared relevant information to convince decision-makers to implement IPv6, showing the business advantages and technical benefits of this protocol as compared to IPv4.

According to the expert, a company can set IPv6 deployment as a business priority to increase profits, achieve new benefits and acquire more customers.

In his presentation, Howard observed that more and more engineers are sharing with him their intention to deploy IPv6 and how their bosses are refusing to accept their ideas.

This is the reason why Howard prepared a presentation to share ideas on how to convince company management, designing a business plan for the use of IPv6 within an organization.

IPv4 is more expensive. Howard showed statistics on IPv4 address exhaustion and mentioned an increase in the price of IPv4 addresses on the secondary market. He presented information on the upward trend in the price of IPv4 addresses, which began costing between 7 and 10 dollars per address and are currently being offered for around 30 dollars.

“The last /24s have become very expensive, going from 23 to 26 dollars per address. This shows that new prices are being set for IPv4 addresses,” he added.

According to Google statistics, given the rise in the market price of IPv4 addresses and their exhaustion, the use of IPv6 is growing dramatically worldwide. Therefore, Howard warned that there is the risk that something one wants – or needs – will require IPv6 before the company has implementedd the protocol. “We need to think two years ahead,” he said.

If the IPv6 growth trend continues, by the end of this year 50% of Internet users in the United States will be using IPv6, and by the year 2020 this number will have reached 80%.

At regional level, Howard mentioned the great progress in the use of IPv6 in many countries. Sharing examples, he noted that in Bolivia IPv6 deployment will reach 50% in 2023, in Brazil it will reach this number within three years, and in Ecuador IPv6 deployment will be 50% in 2020, just as in Mexico and Peru.

“Worldwide, IPv6 deployment will reach 50% by the end of 2019 – that’s next year! For those who thought that IPv6 was in the distant future, some things may not be adding up to their reality,” Howard added.

Faster IPv6. Howard proposed discussing an issue which is still not well-known in the region. He presented scientific papers proving that IPv6 is faster than IPv4.

“Based on these studies, I can assure you that if your competition has already deployed IPv6, then they are 15% faster than your company,” said the expert.

According to Akamai, IPv6 is 5% faster in median and 15% faster for the 95^th percentile of Internet traffic.

Another academic paper shared by Howard shows that IPv6 is 20% faster for websites, while Facebook statistics raise this number to 30% or 40%. “There is an abundance of technical data that proves that IPv6 is much faster,” Howard noted.

Cost reduction, new revenue. When weighing the arguments to convince an organization’s management of the advantages of implementing IPv6 in their business, Howard suggested mentioning a cost reduction as a result of not having to purchase IPv4 addresses, as well new revenue the company can generate thanks to services using IPv6. “Thanks to its new capabilities, IPv6 can be a special source of revenue,” Howard concluded.

Click here to watch the complete presentation.