Friday, October 29, 2010

gogoNET Live! IPv6 Conference - Nov 3-4


If you are in California and interested in IPv6 then you should already be signed up for the gogoNET LIVE! event being hosted at San Jose State University happening Nov 3-4th. The line up of keynotes is impressive:


Vint Cert - Honorary Chair, IPv6 Forum; Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
John Curran - President and CEO, ARIN
Elise Gerich - Vice President, IANA
Bob Hinden - Chief Internet Technologist, Nokia
Dave Ward - CTO, Infrastructure Product Group, Juniper
Latif Ladid - President, IPv6 Forum, Conference Co-Chair
Bruce Sinclair - CEO, gogo6, Conference Co-Chair

There are a ton of great speakers too. Check out who is presenting at the speakers page. Shameless plug because I will presenting on what is happening with the California IPv6 Task Force. I personally always enjoy seeing Martin Levy with Hurricane Electric present along with Tony Hain with Cisco and Stephan Lagerholm with Secure64 Software. I am excited to hear from Silva Hagen with Sunny Connection AG and Donn Lee with Facebook too.

The event is being presented by the IPv6 Forum, the California IPv6 Task Force and gogo6.

If you aren't paying attention to IPv6 here is a little bit of youtube video amusement from Cisco to get you moving.
- Ed

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

IPv6 - The Ostrich Effect

I have decided it is time to label one of the psychological effects being seen in the IT Professional community in regards to IPv6. I am calling it the Ostrich Effect and I am defining it as:

"The aversion to receiving information about IPv6 or avoiding the topic long enough in hopes it will go away"

It seems there are several different grouping of opinions regarding IPv6 and here are my quick outline of those groups below. I do think some of my group's mental states lines up with the stages of grief which are Denial, Anger, Negotiation, Depression and Acceptance however I think mine have more to do with the camps that have evolved around the issue of IPv6. I actually think that for each group defined below they will still have to go through all the stages of grief, I just think some will make it through without issue and some might not make it at all.

1. The "it will never happen" group
Typically folks in this category are more project planners, IT directors and CFO types who are justifying their comments by making generic snide references to how long have people been saying we would run out of IPv4 addresses and that it hasn't come to pass or that there is no new beneficial value from planning or even looking into IPv6. Their primary concerns are cost controls not operational issues so to them IPv6 only looks like an additional cost without any benefit. There are also people who believe IPv4 can live forever by doing even more NAT/PAT solutions but they clearly haven't looked at the bigger picture of the challenges with that for solution providers and carriers. Also, many in this group tend not to understand the larger issues with IPv4 vs IPv6 such as routing table size, the usage rate of addresses etc and seem to think that we can simply "recover" IPv4 addresses from folks who got allocated "too many" in the early days of IPv4. In a desperate plea to those folks, go take a look at what ARIN has to say about that.

2. The "I'm not convinced and this is annoying" group
Honestly, I think most business and management folks fit into this category right now. That is why there are IPv6 Task Forces all over the US to try and help people understand why they should be in the 3 or 4 category. Many professionals feel it is hard enough to keep up on what they have today in terms of technology so to learn a whole new networking protocol adds a lot of burden for the same perceived functionality they get out of IPv4 today. In addition, they truly believe they have a lot more time to work this out then they actually do. Basically they are stalling and are annoyed that people are telling them they have to pay attention.

3. The "I get it but I will wait for broader adoption" group
This group of people understand it is coming but don't want to be the first to have to do it. Unfortunately most network admins and system admins fit in this group. What is more alarming is they are horribly lacking in training and resources to get IPv6 working in their environment and unfortunately are unlikely to get budget to get the training they need. Hence their desire to wait! What is of great concern for them is when their management moves from group 2 to group 4 overnight. Then their management expects them to be able to implement overnight too. My only advise is get training any way you can so you are ready when the sleeping giant awakens.

4. The "I am totally stoked to get IPv6 rolled out" group
The rare group of IT professionals and visionary business leaders who understand that for their business model to continue working they must be able to support and communicate with everyone who might potentially be on the Internet, regardless of if they are using IPv4 or IPv6 to reach you. And with the address pool depletion happening soon (maybe before the end of 2010 if there is a run on addressing) you will have no choice - you MUST adopt IPv6 to meet that goal. So, they are already planning to design, deploy and support it, it means continued business which means everyone can keep the lights on. In other words, they get it. Many forward thinking companies have already starting doing this - kudos to you!

5. The "I've been doing IPv6 for years - what took you so long" group
The front runners and leaders who are using IPv6 as a strategic advantage as market leaders of services hoping to gain new customers and take customers from those who are unable to meet the new business requirements of those in group 4. Hate to say it but to be in group 5 means you've already been doing IPv6 for more than a year or longer. This group has left the station and it's an exclusive club and you can't join - sorry, it's just too late. For those in this group - you rock.

I hope to post up a road map that I am developing for the CAv6TF soon. It is for IT Professionals to allow them to rapidly meet the IPv6 requirements that will drop on them like a lead balloon. It is specifically targeted for folks in group 3 and 4 and has both the road map but a checklist too.
- Ed

Monday, October 18, 2010

Texas IPv6 Task Force 2010 Summit - presentations have posted

For those that are looking for IPv6 content all the recent presentations that were given at the Texas IPv6 Task Force 2010 Summit have been posted. The event was excellent (thanks to Stan Barber and Stephan Lagerholm) and I recommend download them to review when you have a moment.

Unfortunately the event was NOT video recorded but I must say that Richard Jimmerson, CIO of ARIN gave a great presentation along with Tony Hain from Cisco Systems and Martin Levy with Hurricane Electric.

It was clear from the Summit that the IPv6 message did not make it out as was hoped to allow for a smooth and structured transition. Prepare for a bumpy ride here in the next few months is my feeling.
- Ed

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Texas IPv6 Task Force 2010 Summit



I'm excited to be heading out to the TXv6TF IPv6 2010 Summit which is taking place Oct 11-12 in Richardson, TX. A good selection of IPv6 topics plus it will also be a chance to meet several of the folks who are loosely helping to run the NAv6TF and drive IPv6 adoption across North America. At the same time, I am trying to get more folks to participate in the upcoming CAv6TF / gogoNET LIVE! IPv6 Conference which is happening Nov 2-4 at San Jose State University in the California.

I hope to be able to meet a bunch of fellow IPv6 advocates and see what types of companies are currently interested in IPv6 and what stages they are in regarding deployment and planning.

If you are going to be at the event, please let me know. You can follow me on twitter or send me a note via ed AT howfunky DOT com.
- Ed
(ps - happy 101010 day)

Monday, October 04, 2010

IPv6 events for Oct and Nov 2010

There are several IPv6 events happening in October and November that are worth noting. Here is the short list of events I have on my list to attend.

The first event is the TXv6TF IPv6 Summit, Oct 11-12 in Richardson, Texas. The event is hosted at the Richardson Cisco office and has a great line up of presenters including Scott Hogg, Martin Levy, Richard Jimmerson and Stan Barber plus many more.

The next event is Owen DeLong with Hurricane Electric presenting at the East Bay Cisco's User Group on Oct 14th in Pleasanton, CA. Owen will be giving an update on the situation with IPv6 working groups, how the transition to IPv6 is going and a general state of IPv6 from a service provider view.

Then on Nov 3-4 the California IPv6 Task Force and gogoNET present the gogoNET LIVE! IPv6 conference at San Jose State University. The conference will have a pre-conference workshop day on Nov 2nd and will be the flagship IPv6 event in California. Keynotes will be given by:
Vint Cerf - Honorary Chair IPv6 Forum
John Curran - President and CEO, ARIN
Bob Hinden - Chief Internet Technologist, Nokia
Elise Gerich - Vice President, IANA

The end of the year has a lot of IPv6 events for folks to attend. I encourage everyone to participate in these great local IPv6 events to help get a better understanding of IPv6. You can either go kicking and screaming or walk through the door with confidence and knowledge regarding IPv6. IPv6 is happening, now, take the time to learn it so you know what is happening.
- Ed

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Updated look and feel for howfunky.com

The layout and look have been the same for Howfunky for over 5 years now and the site needed a newer updated look. I took advantage of some of the newer Blogger templates and tools to update the site. I might change and add a few more things to the site now that it is more flexible for me to do so.

I hope the updated look is a welcome improvement. None of the links should have changed so please tell me if something broke for you and I will try and see if it is something I can fix.
- Ed