IPv6 has been gaining traction since it was developed in the late 1990s, and enterprises that are implementing it now are considered to be among the early majority – meaning widespread adoption is well underway – so if you haven’t already begun, you need to start planning IPv6 deployment.
The first step along that path is to do your homework. There are many published resources that enterprises can leverage to plan their IPv6 deployments, and some very valuable ones are linked to at the bottom of this article.
But to help get you started, here are some best practices that enterprises are encouraged to use in formulating their deployment plans.
Organize Your IPv6 Team.
You will want to pull together a cross-functional team to lead your IPv6 planning and deployment. Having team-members from the networking, security, systems, applications, desktop and helpdesk teams, along with business unit and management stakeholders, will ensure successful cooperation and collaboration.
Get Trained On IPv6
Most enterprises have IT staff that has not spent much time learning about IPv6 and comparing it to the IPv4 protocol they are familiar with. When these teams start to learn about IPv6, they often ask many of the same basic questions. Even though there have been excellent IPv6 training materials available for years, many IT teams could use a good IPv6 tutorial to help get them started. Any extra training will pay dividends as the IPv6 project progresses.
IPv6 Planning And Design.
Once the teams are trained and know what is in the environment, they can create a detailed technical plan for deployment. This wholistic design will take into account all aspects of your environment and the business benefits that your organization will derive from IPv6 implementation. The plan should follow the internet-inward deployment method.
IPv6 Proof Of Concept (PoC)
If your organization has a lab to test configurations, then this is where you will perfect your configuration scripts. Using your own IPv6 home lab, while a great way to learn, may not be sufficient, and you may require a PoC testbed to prepare for production implementation.
