Hurricane Electric’s Owen DeLong recently wrote an article for Data Center Knowledge on IPv6 Adoption in the Data Center. From the article:
Most data center operators know that a failure to transition to IPv6 will eventually restrict access to connected resources and degrade communications efficiency. But one lesson of World IPv6 Day (held June 8, 2011) is that IPv6 adoption can bring immediate benefits in the form of improved network topologies and security today.
In determining when to transition to IPv6, the most common concern is the dwindling availability of IPv4 addresses to support additional devices. This limited thinking is a pity, as IPv4 suffers from a host of limitations beyond its address capacity, including inefficient routing and packet processing, indirect data flows, overly complex network configuration, and feeble security. Yes, IPv6’s nearly infinite supply of addresses (340 undecillion) could accommodate an intergalactic deployment of connected devices, but of equal importance is IPv6’s ability to improve routing efficiency, reduce router processing, enable true peer-to-peer connectivity, and eliminate complex layers of indirection like NAT.
