Tata Communications's Genius Wong, Senior Vice President, Global IP and VPN Services said that Asia is leading the way in IPv6 adoption and both governments and businesses in the region are poised to lead the way in the rollout as the transition from IPv4 is made.

 

"Asia is in better position as the region was lagging behind the West in technology adoption," she said, "This meant that as vendors rolled out IPv6 ready hardware, Asia and the businesses here were ready to install them."

 

IPv4 which is in use today is rapidly running out of available IP addresses. IPv6, the next incarnation of the Internet, will not only have more addresses available but also more secure.

 

Vendors have joined the IPv6 bandwagon by releasing networking equipment and applications that are optimized to carry IPv6 traffic.

 

Wong said that awareness of the limitations of IPv4 have been understood for a while. The major inhibiting factor has been that businesses have already rolled out their infrastructure and getting a budget to install IPv6 ready hardware will be expensive. "For these businesses, replacing them when during an IT refresh piecemeal will be easier," Wong said.

 

Wong said that Tata has been working on solving the IPv4 issue for a number of years and ensured that any of their infrastructure rollouts are IPv6 ready. "We also work closely with telcos and businesses who are transitioning their network to IPv6," she added. 

 

What is needed, Wong said, is for governments to lead with way with legislation that require businesses to be ready for IPv6. "Once some businesses are IPv6 ready, their partners and suppliers will have to jump on the bandwagon," Wong said, "They can't afford to be left behind."