Planning for IPv6

Chapter 1. The Business Case

In this first chapter, I’ll discuss the business case and try to put it in a larger context than usual to open the discussion for new perspectives and opportunities. Resolving the business case discussions and putting the integration of IPv6 in the right context paves the way for you to actually focus on the demands of planning for a successful integration.

Many people hesitate to start the planning phase, probably because it often seems to be an insurmountable task, with challenges that are way too complex to even start thinking about it.

While it is true that integration in a larger network is not a no-brainer and takes a lot of time and careful planning, there is no need to panic or think that you can’t handle it. Every decent engineer who mastered the introduction of DHCP, VPNs, and NATs will also master the introduction of IPv6. The difference is that IPv6, as the transport protocol, touches every component in the network, so the complexity of integrating it comes from having to consider all the interactions between the different network components and services.

But the process can be broken down into single, doable steps, and you don’t have to complete them in three months if you start early enough. This book provides an outline to help you determine how you want to go about tackling it.

The Inevitable Business Case Discussion

The discussion around the lack of a business case for IPv6 is historically the most used good reason to avoid integrating IPv6. ...