The National Institute of Standards (NIST) hit a big milestone last week with the release of a mandated Internet Protocol version six (IPv6) specification for the federal government. The Office of Management & Budget (OMB) now want products and services that are built to the new specs. Government Computer News (GCN) featured several stories on IPv6 this week.
Calling it the "next step in the long road to IPv6 transition," GCN pronounced "IPv6 standards profile released" as well as a related story, "USPS to deploy IPv6-capable video surveillance."
Here's an excerpt from the the US Postal Service (USPS) story: "The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plans to deploy an IPv6-capable video surveillance system to 40,000 postal sites across the country. In addition to providing high-quality video, the system is expected to provide the USPS with enhanced mobility, security and network management capabilities. The new video platform will be integrated into the existing USPS network."
If you haven't started thinking about IPv6, now is the time to start. There are numerous functional and security benefits, and although the costs will be fairly high to transition, the benefits will be huge. No doubt much of the work needs to come from vendor partners first. I know this transition is not even on the radar of many state and local governments, but look for this to become a hot issue in 2009 and/or 2010.
