A Canadian campus has converted to the latest internet protocol, but with just a few weeks until web giants give the new protocol a test run, questions remain about higher education’s readiness for the long-awaited transition.
The global proliferation of numerical addresses for web-capable computers and phones has led to a shortage of IP addresses in the current IPv4 platform. The next generation of IP address – known as IPv6 – will offer exponentially more addresses, IT experts said.
Time to convert might be running short.
Read more about IPv6 in higher education…
Colleges could profit as internet runs out of addresses
Mobile device boom sparks U.S. web address shortage
June 8 will be World IPv6 Day – organized by the Internet Society — when major sites like Facebook, Yahoo!, and Google will operate on the new protocol for 24 hours, hoping to motivate IT officials worldwide to prepare their networks for the switch.
The last batch of IPv4 addresses was distributed in February.
It’s unclear if colleges and universities are ready for the switch, and a recent survey from Ipswitch Inc. shows that many U.S. networks aren’t completely converted to IPv6.
Nearly nine in 10 enterprise network managers surveyed said they were not fully prepared for the IPv6 switch, and only 12 percent said they were 80-100 percent ready. Two-thirds of respondents had just begun the conversion process.
- Research: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - April 2, 2020
- Number 1: Social media has negative impact on academic performance - December 31, 2014
- 6 reasons campus networks must change - September 30, 2014