Saturday, October 08, 2016

Amazon Web Services adding more IPv6 support

Right on the heels of Microsoft Azure's announcement of IPv6 support for VM's and AWS's own announcement earlier of IPv6 support for S3 is the current AWS IPv6 news. Specifically, AWS has enabled IPv6 support for CloudFront, AWS WAF, and S3 Transfer Acceleration. You can read more about this at https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2016/10/ipv6-support-for-cloudfront-waf-and-s3-transfer-acceleration/ for details. This isn't the announcement I wanted to see from AWS (full IPv6 support for all services and VPC) but it is a huge step in the right direction. Given the pace of announcements I would not be surprised to hear full IPv6 support by re:Invent at the end of November 2016.
Once that final announcement is done from AWS, the landscape of IPv6 adoption will change dramatically. If you break down the IPv6 adoption areas it is clear to see where the work is needed.

US Mobile Providers - All have native IPv6 or dual-stack support - so everyone with mobile access has IPv6
US Broadband Providers - Majority have dual-stack support - so most home users have IPv6
Public Cloud Providers - All should have dual-stack support by the end of 2016 - so anyone deploying services or apps in the cloud has IPv6
Content Providers - All have native IPv6 or dual-stack support - so majority of content to be consumed is available over IPv6

So what is left?
Enterprise and Commercial Business
Federal, State and Local Government
Higher Education

With Google IPv6 Statistics for the US market now reporting close to 30% of traffic hitting Google as IPv6 it seems it is okay to label those who are remaining as late adopters or laggards. It is time for those in that category to start getting their adoption plans done and start implementing. I'm pretty sure not communicating natively with about 1/3 of the Internet is not an acceptable technology stance but I am open to other opinions. Let me know your thought!
- Ed

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Microsoft Azure finally supports IPv6

I have been waiting a long time for this to happen. Microsoft announced at Ignite 2016 in Atlanta the general availability of IPv6 (technically dual-stack) support for Azure VMs. It isn't available in all regions but the list of supported regions is really large which is a great sign. You can see the announcement at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/ipv6-for-azure-vms/

I need to jump in and do some quick labs and testing next week to play with things but I am hopeful this will allow me to test some more complex IPv6 scenarios and run some labs too. I will update once I have a better idea of how it all looks.

With Amazon AWS adding IPv6 support for S3 and likely adding more IPv6 support for other services in November at re:Invent I think 2016 is shaping up to be the hyper growth year for IPv6... finally.
- Ed

Monday, April 18, 2016

Interop Las Vegas 2016 - May 2-6 - Advanced IPv6 Design and Deployment in a Microsoft Enterprise Network

Interop
As a speaker, I get to pass out some discount codes for Interop. 25% off the site cost for the 5, 3 or 2 day passes so nothing to sneeze at in terms of savings. Many thanks to the Interop folks for doing that. No restriction on the discount code best I know (so pass it out to friends and colleagues) except it has to be used by Friday, April 29th.

This year at Interop I will be presenting on "Advanced IPv6 Design and Deployment in a Microsoft Enterprise Network" and the focus is really about what does and doesn't work. It is a practical, in person, update of Chapter 3 of my book Practical IPv6 for Windows Administrators from Apress. The goal is to pass along some of the lessons learned and updates on some IPv6 behavior, specifically around the Microsoft Windows OS.

Last year I did a full 3 hour IPv6 workshop on IPv6 that covered a wider range of IPv6 concerns. This year, I wanted to focus on IPv6 issues that would impact Enterprise, Commerical, and Small Businesses who run Microsoft Windows in their environment. We can detour a bit talking about Virtualization (VMware and Hyper-V) depending on what the audience wants to cover.

I'm really looking forward to seeing many friends, colleagues and fellow speakers in Las Vegas next month for Interop and I encourage you to join me. I consider Interop to be one of the shining stars of independent conferences that gets great content, excellent independent speakers and really has an impact on the industry and value for the attendees. If you are attending, please let me know via twitter, perhaps we can meet in person at some point during the event.

Finally, if you attend my session you have a chance to win a signed copy of my book. I will give out two copies after my session is over. I encourage you to also attend some of the other IPv6 content that will be presented at Interop. Hope to see you there!
- Ed




Monday, February 08, 2016

TechMentor Las Vegas 2016 - March 6-11 - IPv6 Workshop

 
As a speaker, I can extend $500 savings on the 5-day package. Just use the link above to get that deal. Sort of cool that TechMentor does that.

I'm excited to be presenting a 3 hour pre-conference workshop at TechMentor Las Vegas this year. It is on IPv6 and is designed to get an experienced IT professional up and running on IPv6 quickly. It is titled: TM06 Workshop: IPv6 Boot Camp: Get Up to Speed Quickly

The workshop is extra, above and beyond the regular TechMentor conference but trust me, I will make the session worth your time and investment. Plus, the list of other speakers is pretty impressive, check out who else will be presenting. I am going to sneak in to see Don Jones, Greg Shields, Jennelle Crothers, Jason Helmick, Jeff Hicks, Richard Hicks, Sami Laiho, Mark Minasi - oh wait, those are more sessions than I can fit on my schedule! You get the idea.

If you need to understand the dos and don't around IPv6, what could derail you, what problems you might face, how IPv6 is operationally different and how to go about troubleshooting, this workshop is for you. You will walk away with a 60 page workbook and the slides in addition to the actual session content. I will be bringing 3 signed copies of my book to give away too, why not!

This workshop covers content I don't explicitly have in my book or in the Pluralsight course I have authored. It really is lessons learned from deploying and working with customers. So come learn how to avoid some of the painful things I have lived through in deploying IPv6 so you can get your project off the ground faster and with fewer issues. I look forward to seeing you there.

TechMentor will also be having a private social event on Monday evening (the day of the workshops) and I would love to hang out and talk IPv6. I've always been impressed with the great interaction of TechMentor attendees so I am looking forward to hearing some stories and perhaps sharing one or two myself!
- Ed