IPv6 Must Be Enabled On All US Government Sites By Sunday

darthcamaro writes "Agencies of the U.S. Federal Government are racing to comply with a September 30th deadline to offer web, email and DNS for all public facing websites over IPv6. While not all government websites will hit the deadline, according to Akamai at least 2,000 of them will. According to at least one expert, the IPv6 mandate is proof that top-down cheerleading for tech innovation works. 'The 2012 IPv6 mandate is not the first (or the last) IPv6 transition mandate from the U.S. government. Four years ago, in 2008, the U.S. government also had an IPv6 mandate in place. That particular mandate, required U.S. Government agencies to have IPv6-ready equipment enabled in their infrastructure.'"

Comments

I blame the ISPs

[GeneralTurgidson]

A lot of the government offices will face challenges with IPv6 connectivity to the internet because a very large number of US ISPs are not IPv6 ready. Especially up here in midwest, you mention "are you IPv6 ready?" and your ISP sales rep gives you a blank look and asks what you're talking about. Maybe if the governments push for this at the ISP level we might see it filter down.

Re:I blame the ISPs

[geddo]

As a consumer you do not need IPv6 unless your provider does not have IPv4 addresses to assign to you, as a service provider or Internet based company (or in this case a government agency) you do need IPv6 so that customers who only have IPv6 connections can reach you. Most business class ISP's I have dealt with are IPv6 dual-stack capable, so this is not an ISP issue. The government is doing what other companies are doing and trying to get this working now before it becomes an issue for the future. There is no blame to pass around unless an organization is putting their heads in the sand and ignoring it.

Re:If I don't convert, what will you do?

[kevmeister]

This is an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) mandate. They can reduce or completely halt funding. It has been made very clear that, while there will be failures and missed dates, they better not be because you were not trying. Oddly, management tends to take the possibility of losing funding very, very seriously.