[rpd] IPv6 and some cloud providers

[Owen DeLong]

> On May 31, 2020, at 08:36 , Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu> wrote:

> 

> 

> 

> On 31/May/20 17:20, Fernando Frediani wrote:

> 

>> Guess some hosting/content companies are still to afraid to force

>> IPv6, who knows why.

>> In the other hand is great to see companies like Cloudflare that

>> doesn't allow customers to disable IPv6 anymore, therefore is compulsory.

>> 

>> One thing I can leave for those who haven't started yet because they

>> may be afraid of breaking something, just do it and you will see it's

>> not a big deal as you do it.

>> 

> 

> If you're providing and managing all the hardware and software

> infrastructure to host services, this is not a problem.

> 

> If all you provide is a hardware platform, and let the customer run

> their own OS and service, it's hard to force the use of IPv6.


How does one provide the hardware platform and let the customer run their own OS without also providing the network infrastructure that connects that hardware platform to, well, everything it connects to?

If you’re providing the network infrastructure, it’s very easy to make IPv6 available.
It’s not particularly hard to force the use of IPv6, though it might prove a drag on revenue.

Forcing the use of IPv6 is not what is required, however. Making IPv6 available and explaining the benefits of dual-stack is useful.
Making IPv6 available and explaining that IPv4 will be via NAT and the disadvantages that entails is useful.

The increasing costs and decreasing functionality of IPv4 will drive IPv6 adoption for content providers. That writing has been on the walls for years. If it wasn’t, then it’s unlikely Google/YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, etc. would have put in the effort.

Facebook has been particularly forward looking in that they’ve made their IPv4 functionality an edge-service for the declining subset of their user base that is IPv6 handicapped. All of their infrastructure is IPv6 and they have translator boxes at the edge to provide services to those limited to IPv4 only.

I suspect over time we will see more and more of the content providers following Facebook’s model.

Owen