World IPv6 Launch.

The next-generation Internet has arrived, and some companies in Singapore are sending out a clear signal that they are ready for it by participating in the World IPv6 Launch on 6 June 2012. Organised by the Internet Society, the World IPv6 Launch is when participants from across the world – from major Internet service providers (ISPs) to home networking equipment manufacturers and web companies – come together to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services.

IPv6 is a 128-bit Internet addressing protocol that allows the creation of a potentially unlimited number of Internet addresses, compared with the previous 32-bit IPv4 protocol which can support only 4.3 billion Internet addresses. The rapid depletion of IPv4 addresses worldwide means that businesses will need to make sure that they are IPv6-ready in order to cater for future growth and to engage with customers and partners who will, increasingly, be making use of IPv6 addresses.

Other than promoting and encouraging IPv6 adoption, the message behind World IPv6 Launch is that IPv6 is critical to the Internet’s continued growth as a platform for innovation and economic development. More than 1,000 websites worldwide have already registered their participation in the event. About 40 global Internet providers have also joined the effort to enable IPv6 such that at least 1 per cent of their wireline residential subscribers can surf IPv6 content. Among the participants are organisations such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Cisco.

The purpose of the World IPv6 Launch is aligned with Singapore’s IPv6 transition programme, which is spearheaded by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). According to IDA, the participation of Singapore companies in the World IPv6 Launch demonstrates the reality that IPv6 transition works and their willingness to maintain economic growth and competitiveness by mitigating threats of IPv4 exhaustion early.

IDA launched its IPv6 transition programme over a year ago to prepare the industry for IPv6 transition. This involves an ecosystem of players including content providers, Internet service providers, hosting providers and system vendors.

The transition programme helps to create awareness of the ecosystem’s readiness and illustrates the government’s role in driving IPv6 adoption. Under this programme, events ranging from executive briefings to technical seminars and workshops have reached out to over 600 participants ranging from infocomm professionals to IT and business leaders.

An IPv6 information portal was launched to provide local industry with online resources to help them in transition planning and execution. To seed IPv6 adoption in the ecosystem, IDA also funded several local popular website companies on their IPv6 transition. IDA is also focusing on capability development to train the local IT professionals and students in IPv6 competencies.

Among the Singapore organisations taking part in the World IPv6 Launch are content providers JobStreet, SGCarMart and PropertyGuru. Mr Tan Jinglun, Director of SGCartMart, believes that IPv6 is a key factor to business sustainability. Similar sentiments were expressed by GTW Holdings, which runs the popular food and beverage website HungryGoWhere. As the leading food review site in Singapore, the company also wants to set an example with the adoption of IPv6 and share its experiences with the relative ease of IPv6 implementation.

Besides consumer-facing websites, telecommunication infrastructures are also being enabled for IPv6. The Singapore Internet Exchange (SGIX) provides a network platform for ISPs and content providers to peer and exchange Internet traffic in Singapore. It wanted to give Internet service providers and content providers the freedom to exchange traffic on both IPv4 and IPv6. By participating in World IPv6 Launch, SGIX wants to demonstrate the feasibility of going dual-stack to support IPv6 through the set of services they provide.

IDA will host an IPv6 conference in July 2012 that focuses on benefits, opportunities and innovations of IPv6 for the industry. For more information, please visit /ipv6 .