Are You Ready for IP Version 6?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 11, 2011 -- (Hamilton, Canada)—According to Dr. Nick Bontis, author of “Information Bombardment: Rising Above the Digital Onslaught,” the few remaining Internet protocol (IP) addresses under the current version (IPv4) were made available in February of this year and will soon be utilized. That means the time for expansion is now.

“IP version 4 offered 4.3 billion IP addresses, and today almost all of those addresses have been assigned,” says Dr. Bontis. “Of these, more than 1.5 billion IP addresses are used in the United States alone, despite having a population of just over 300 million people. It’s no surprise 4.3 billion addresses will be insufficient.”

Indeed, the IP address shortage has been known since 1980, and the development of IP version 6 has been in place for years. In fact, June 8, 2011 was IPv6 Day, when more than 400 Web content companies made their sites accessible to devices with IPv6 platforms, according to “The New York Times.” Without much hoopla, it was apparently a success.

Dr. Bontis says IPv6 dramatically expands the number of IP addresses on the World Wide Web. The new system has 16 octets per IP address instead of 4, and it offers 128 bits of data instead of 32 bits. That means IPv6 provides an estimated 3.4 X 1038 IP addresses compared to the measly 4.3 X 109 IP addresses with IPv4.

“Getting your head around such a big figure is difficult,” says Dr. Bontis. “According to scientists, if all the grains of sand in the world’s deserts, ocean floors. and beaches were counted, there would be 7 X 1020 grains in total. This is slightly more than half of the number of IP address that will be available with version 6.”

While this number seems like overkill, Dr. Bontis says IPv6 allows objects to have their own IP addresses and connectivity to the Internet. Here are some of the changes we may see in the future due to IPv6:

* Cartons of milk sending you texts or e-mails indicating they are about to expire
* Energy-efficiency reports sent to you from your home air-conditioning unit
* Notification from your clothes that their level of starch is low
* Weekly updates regarding your car’s tire pressure and tread wear
* Medical logs sent to your doctor’s office from personal monitoring devices

Dr. Bontis states IPv6 opens the door for greater information bombardment as devices and things will increasingly communicate with us. In his book, Dr. Bontis talks about various inanimate objects that will soon be IP-enabled and strategies that may help in coping with the accompanying information bombardment.

About the author:

Dr. Nick Bontis was named a 2010 top five speaker worldwide for management and one of the world's top management gurus of 2010, along with such luminaries as Jack Welch, Tom Peters, Michael Porter, and Jim Collins. He is an internationally sought-after management consultant and keynote speaker, hand-picked by the United Nations, the US Navy, Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, KPMG, Century 21, and others to help navigate the knowledge era. He is a popular TV and radio personality, a leading academic researcher, and an award-winning, tenured professor of strategic management at McMaster University. As one of the world’s most-cited authors in the fields of intellectual capital and knowledge management, he has amassed over a dozen prestigious teaching and research awards. He was recently recognized as a 3M National Teaching Fellow, an exclusive honor bestowed upon the top professors in the nation.