Moving IPv6
Ever Forward For
Peter Tseronis, Federal IPv6 Working Group Co-Chair, the focus is not
on the June 30, 2008 IPv6 deadline, but continuing IPv6 momentum in the
future.
Peter
Tseronis is Director, Network Services at Education. Prior to
delivering the keynote at the IPv6: The Future for Dynamic Networks
conference February 13, 2008, he spoke with 1105 Custom Media about
IPv6, network architecture investments and dynamic networks.
1105:
Everyone is gearing for the June 30 deadline. But what happens next? Tseronis:
We
still need to get people thinking about specifics in terms of the
integration of IPv6 into agency architectures and their investment
portfolio. Management and stakeholder buy-in need to continue to keep
the momentum going forward.
NIST is putting forth an interoperability program that accredits labs
where network vendors can bring products to test whether they meet the
NIST profile. (NIST released its 2nd draft profile on IPv6 Jan. 23; it
helps agencies buy products that the government considers capable of
handling the new protocol.)
It’s all about keeping the momentum because in June, it
doesn’t all just go away. For example there is the new
Trusted
Information Connections (TIC) initiative. The TIC initiative is one
that’s going to be probably intertwined a bit with IPv6.
1105: Some
will think they’re finished with IPv6 in June. How do you
keep them motivated? Tseronis:
Basically we’ve got to re-emphasize that this is the
beginning of
a long journey. It’s a globalization effort; it’s
one that
is causing us to all think about how we want to be communicating in the
future.
We are on the final phase of Phase 1; it will be the 35 month
culmination of the IPv6 initiative, but by no means should we relish
the success of passing the demonstration on the core backbone.
The
IPv6 initiative is not about satisfying OMB; it’s about
architecting networks in the future; and marrying the technical aspects
of IPv6 to agency core missions and strategic capabilities.
This should be a spring board and if agencies aren’t already
contemplating how they plan to begin using the technology to develop
new applications, well then they are short sighted. This has been the
spark to get people thinking about: How do I want to use this?
1105: Will
the election affect government’s IPv6 efforts? Tseronis:
Who knows what’s going to happen with the transition of this
administration. However, the Internet is not going to go away; IPv6 is
not based on an administration. The ultimate goal is to increase the IP
address space; and to allow for more applications of the Internet, more
devices to communicate or more parts of the globe to communicate with.
1105: How
are agencies going to get money to invest in future IPv6 applications? Tseronis:
People ask me that all the time. I tell them you shouldn’t be
using IPv6 as your excuse to seek funds, you should be looking at your
network architecture and maturing your network.
Re-examine how old your architectures are and where you need to replace
equipment. When you go to buy new products, point to the profile and
say “these are the types of devices that I need to do X, Y
and Z
and they support the IPv6 protocol.” These are the things we
should be buying.
I tell my colleagues, “don’t say I need money for
IPv6;
talk about the need to refresh your IT architecture and bring your
network up to modern day America.” That’s the
business case
that rings true with the person who holds the purse strings. It is
tough to argue against that.
Look at how VOIP and IP telephony are now mainstream; it’s
what
makes sense, it’s what’s tried and true and
it’s just
the evolution of telephony and architecture. So IPv6 is something that
should be a part of any upgrade to any network component, at least it should be in the
discussion.
1105: What
is a dynamic network? Tseronis:
To
me a dynamic network is one that is not binary, meaning I do this and
it will do that. A dynamic network is one that regardless of the type
of information or application or data that is traversing the circuits,
it’s seamless.
Data should become transparent. If you want to do video conferencing or
telephony or emailing or peer-to-peer networking; or if you want to
carry a mobile phone and you want to be in communication, there should be a thing that says click and call up, instead of
I’d better call this number and three and four people to set
up
the phone numbers so that when you dial in at this time of the day we
are all connected and somebody’s manning the line.
That’s what dynamic networks are to me; networks that are in
essence fully functioning self healing and auto-configured.
It
doesn’t matter what you are using or where you are.
Instantaneous connectivity, pervasive networks whatever you want to
call it; online, real-time access to information communications;
anywhere, anytime access, to me is what embodies the whole idea of
dynamic networking.
So, if you want to be doing a video conference right now while
I’m on my Blackberry in my car, I should be able to just dial
a
phone number and do it.
1105: Have
you consolidated network operations at Education? Tseronis:
Yes. We were able to consolidate network operations (voice, video and
data) with the support of senior leadership. At Education it
didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot of discussion,
justification, figuring out where the ROI will be and preparation of
the business case to ultimately get this pushed through. The Department
discovered it could save money on telephony by implementing a converged
IP solution. That opened up the door to new possibilities. When you see
those costs realized, you say, ‘how can I leverage my network
to
do more than just data transfers’.
