Get your passports ready! Coming off the successful event last February and in preparation for the next World IPv6 Day, Cisco again is sponsoring the V6 World Congress 2012 in Paris February 7-10 2012. This is an opportunity to hear from a number of IPv6-related companies such as Google, Yahoo, Softbank, Comcast, and of course Cisco. In addition to the keynotes and panels the event also provides a unique opportunity to actually meet one-on-one with Cisco’s technology leaders.
While previously this was a service provider focused event, this year includes a number of sessions targeted towards enterprise customers, so even if you aren’t a network provider it’s still a great venue to learn about the transition to the IPv6 Internet.
This is the second section of our two part interview with Brent Cobb, Cbeyond’s Chief Revenue and Customer Officer. The first part is located here.
How will IPv6 Transition affect your customers?
Brent Cobb:
Cbeyond has been watching IPv6 unfold since the late 90s. Today the company is in the implementation phase of its transition to support IPv6, and we’ve chosen Cisco’s Carrier Grade v6 (CGv6) implementation as its solution. To us IPv6 will impact how the plumbing of the Internet works – but we try to take the really sophisticated technology of operating a network and applications out of the discussion and service delivery to the small business into the discussion. The majority won’t be impacted directly by IPv6 because Cbeyond will make changes within our network, within our data centers, and within our application environment so our customers don’t have to understand the difference between v4 and v6. It will be transparent to our customers because we’ll handle the complexity.
Since its founding in 1999, Cbeyond, the Atlanta-based managed services provider, has tried to remain true to its name. The company which focuses exclusively on small- and medium-sized businesses must observe and act on technology trends well in advance to maintain its position with its customers as both a communications and hosted IT provider.
We recently had an opportunity to interview Brent Cobb, Cbeyond’s Chief Revenue and Customer Officer to hear how Cbeyond enables its small business customers to reap the benefits of advanced technology usually unavailable without the IT infrastructure of a big business.
Cisco: What kind of challenges does Cbeyond see facing its customers? Read More »
The transition to IPv6 presents a complex technical challenge, and the business risks for not doing it right are potentially significant, in terms of impact on customer retention and growth, new business models, and competitive edge.
In this third installation of the series, Kelly Ahuja of Cisco and Ray Mota of ACG focus on Service Provider strategies for the transition to IPv6. As Kelly mentions, the Cisco Carrier-Grade IPv6 Solution (CGv6) is designed to help address both technical and business challenges associated with the transition. The Cisco CGv6 portfolio of IPv6 solutions enables service providers to:
Preserve investments in IPv4 infrastructure, assets, and delivery models
Prepare for the smooth, incremental transition to IPv6 services that are interoperable with IPv4
Prosper through accelerated subscriber, device, and service growth that are enabled by the efficiencies that IPv6 can deliver
It’s important to emphasize the word solution. CGv6 solution is not just a line card, or a network appliance, or a software feature. Unlike other companies Cisco has the experience and expertise to help network operators realize the promise of IPv6 by offering full Life Cycle Services Support. This is especially important as not all operators have experience in IPv6 or access to this expertise. Cisco can provide the people, processes and tools to ensure a seamless transition. Some of the capabilities our advanced services team provides include:
One of the hot topics at Cisco Live 2011 last week was around the topic of IPv6 deployment and how to handling the exhaustion of IPv4 address space, both for Enterprise and Service Providers. Over fourteen sessions on the topic were covered, including such titles as How to Convince your Boss to Deploy IPv6, Cisco on Cisco: Making the Leap to IPv6, and IPv6 Planning, Deployment, and Operation Considerations. When it comes to IPv6 implementation, there is no “one size fits all” design, which is why the Cisco CGv6 solution is intended to preserve existing network infrastructure investments, prepare for the transition to IPv6, and enable companies to prosper in the new IPv6 environment.
In the second video of our series on the Service Provider Transition to IPv6 with Kelly Ahuja from Cisco and Roy Mota of ACG Communications, we hear perspectives from cable providers Comcast (USA) and Rogers (Canada) on how they are making the transformation to an IPv6 network. Or as John Brzozowski, Distinguished Engineer & Chief Architect for IPv6 at Comcast, notes “V6 matters to everybody…” that it’s an “…industry, internet community challenge that everyone has to face.”
One critical point that John makes is the need to make the transition seamless despite the huge number of moving parts in the network. This was a key reason for Cisco’s Carrier Grade Network Address Translation implementation, which provides the scale and performance required to offer a simple way to immediately deal with IPv4 address exhaustion issues. Equally important is that many customers aren’t expected to flash-cut over to IPv4. Instead, the transition time will likely take years to ensure that Internet end users are not adversely affected by the migration.
