The Great NRH Event and the Day IPv4 Allocation Officially Ended

Posted on Feb 1, 2011 in IPv6, News and Announcements | 1 comment

What the heck is a Great NRH?

January 12th, 2011: The earth is now in a different spot in relation to the sun than it has been for thousands of years, potentially changing your astrological sign. Nothing happens, but people panic anyway. Well, okay not really panic, but they do quasi-panic and celebrate the Great, “Nothing Really Happened” (NRH) by bringing back the 13th sign from the Babylonians called, “Ophiuchus”.

January 28th, 2011, Cairo, Egypt: Civil unrest erupts so to the point that the country actually pulls down the area’s entire Internet connectivity, including cell service. NOW that caused  people to panic! But what does this have to do with IPv4 allocation? Honestly, not a whole lot, but I promise to get into why it is relevant and important in next week’s blog, so stay tuned!

Okay, back to today’s world changing; the Great NRH…

February 1st, 2011, the day on which the IANA has officially run out of IPv4 addresses to allocate. So? I mean, really… We still all got up, showered, had coffee/tea/breakfast, and then commuted to work as usual, right? It truly does appear that the Great NRH is exactly that— a non-event, and consequently, no one panics. In fact no one even so much as blinks— not even most I.T. professionals! Oh, but they should, they really, really should, because this my friends is the end of an era. As they say, a New Age— and one wherein no amount of crystal rubbing and chanting will do us any good at all. Well not that it ever did, but can’t we at least reminisce a little bit about our Xbox’s and Playstation’s being connected to the Internet via gigabit Ethernet and play Halo until we pee our pants? Why do the astrologers get all the fun and we just have another sloggy day at work? We I.T. pros must certainly do something, and because I, for one, don’t seek the company of dead relatives, I’m going to opt for doing what all scientists, even those who sometimes wax philosophical, typically do when things like this happen… make an all out sprint for understanding WT frig is going on! After all, gaining some solid insight into this event and what its ramifications actually are will equip us with that all powerful of commodities: Knowledge. And that’s exactly what will create both business and technically oriented advancement opportunities galore. The attainment of knowledge… It’s our best shot at doing something today!

That settled, how do we go about this? Well, first, we need to ask ourselves what does IPv6 mean to me, if anything? Will I really use this in my lifetime? Won’t the little fixes we have with IPv4 just keep us going on well enough? Kind of like how duct tape fixes everything? Can’t we just be like that Little Train That Could… “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…” The answer is a very big NO. Instead, we must get over the fact that we’re no longer an Aries or a Libra, lose the children’s book— yep, the duct tape too, and move on to answering some burning questions like:

1. What devices will soon be implemented with your applications using only IPv6?
2. Will your cell phone be using IPv6, and will that change your corporate application strategy?
3. Will you be using cloud computing?
4. If so, how are you going to react when you find out that IPv4 is just sooo slow in comparison to the person on the commuter train next to you?

There’s more— lot’s more— but these few are a good place to start! Also very important to note is the fact that in order to drive this new technology we’ll need a more streamlined and efficient header with our routed protocols, and only IPv6 delivers that! Sorry kids, but there’s not much doubt in my mind that in the not too distant future, using IPv4 will soon be like back when the less unfortunate among us were saddled to a barely breathing nag of a modem, connecting slowly and painfully to the Internet, while our neighbors were rocking their speedy DSL or cable thoroughbreds! Your IPV4 network will degrade overtime as more and more layers of NAT are implemented by your ISP’s.

So if you’re saying “God, I wish he’d just shut up and stop writing about this stupid NRH Event about IPv4 and get to telling us about some seriously cool, new stuff”, then you’re in luck. Yes, everyone is tired of both writing and reading about the IPv4 allocation issue, and today is a new day, full of hope and ideas to share! So from here, I’m going blog on about all the great new possibilities regarding products and services that we’ll be introduced to over the next 3–5 years, which will be running ONLY IPv6. That’s right, I said only IPv6! Oh we’ve already met some members of the first generation in all the great new tablets announced this month. They’re all leading us straight into Cloud computing and to no longer having local hard drives. And what about that cool Internet V2! Oh, and then there’s the proverbial 800 Lb. Gorilla in the room: What about the fact that a government has shut down an entire nation’s Internet and cell service? Is that really a Great NRH? I don’t think so, and I promise that you won’t find me sweeping it under the rug either! So, on that note, let’s not forget about the best thing that can happen to any of us this year: “World IPv6 Day”…

… June 8^th: Can’t wait, can’t wait, oh wow I can’t wait!

But I have to, so now that the world has somehow changed forever today, I’m free to move on to blogging about cool, exciting stuff! Until next time… Happy Great NRH!

Cheers!

Todd Lammle