Sample Company’s Challenge Essay Example for Free

Sample Company’s Challenge Essay Sample Company has offices in Sacramento, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and is currently working on a IPv4 infrastructure which poses a problem with future business operations. By the end of 2011, there will be no more IPv4 addresses. New customers and Internet traffic will be using the next-generation protocol: IPv6. The accelerating growth of the Internet presents powerful opportunities to transform the way we work, live, play, and learn. † (The Internet is in Transition, 2011). Do you want to be on the cutting edge of Internet possibilities or still working on the old IPv4 platform? ABC, Inc. s Solution: To successfully convert your company from an IPv4 to IPv6 platform. This business proposal will explain the advantages of a TCP/IP IPv6 infrastructure and how it will help to improve business operations. Now is the time to plan for this critical transition! Below, I will explain the numerous advantages of IPv6 over IPv4. In analyzing your company’s size and sales figures, I have noticed that there are 3,586 companies in the USA within your same industry and you operate smaller than average in annual business sales, number of employees, and revenue per employee but rank average for the amount of years in business. So you ask, why bother transitioning to IPv6 when we are a much smaller business than the average business in this industry? Do we really need to? The answer is yes and the reasons why are explained below. IPv6 Provides More Addresses: Most industries rely on the Internet and have seen significant gains in production and operations from this technology. Suppliers, customers, vendors, etc. use the Internet for orders, supply tracking, etc. The internet now plays a crucial role in most companies operations. While IPv4 has worked well for us for many years, the problem now lies in space exhaustion. It is estimated that IPv4 can only address 4 billion IP addresses. IPv4 is the protocol that provides these IP addresses which are like phone numbers or a home address that describes the physical location of the node or computer so that they may communicate with the Internet. The advantage of IPv6 is that it will use 128 bit addresses instead of the 32 bit addresses that IPv4 currently uses which caps us at the roughly 4 billion maximum addresses available. This means, there will virtually be enough addresses on IPv6 to address almost every device the particular network is utilizing. Therefore, when IPv6 increases the size and range of devices connected to the Internet, the benefit of the network effect will increase as well. â€Å"To provide equal opportunities worldwide, the Internet architecture must cope with rapid growth in consumer interest and usage. The forecast for growth leads to a new perspective on the demand for IP address space. Even without taking into consideration expected address allocation inefficiencies, IPv4’s 32-bit address space is inadequate to support a plethora of connected devices owned by one-third of Earth’s population. (Grossetete, Popoviciu, Wettling, 2008). IPv6 Security Advantages: Another advantage of IPv6 over IPv4 is security. IPv4 offers an optional IP security where IPv6 has it already built in. â€Å"IPv6 ensures that there are end-to-end security mechanisms that will provide authentication and encryption abilities to all applications and thereby eliminates the need for applications themselves to have integrated support for such abilities. The added benefit of using the same security mechanisms for all applications is that setting up and administering security policies becomes a lot simpler. IPv6 allows for complete end-to-end security thereby allowing for a new set of personalized services to be deployed such as mobile e-commerce services that rely on secure transactions. TCP/IP networks that are utilizing IPv4 are dealing with a host of issues encompassing security† (Das, K. 2011). In today’s Internet world, IPv4 platform security issues exist like connection hijacking, IP spoofing, and packet sniffing. There are not always solutions to these problems and if attempted solutions exist, they are usually at the Application level which creates a problem because they re not always operational between different applications or networks. While IPv6 is not a solution to all possible attacks and situations, it does address many lower level attacks which accounts for the majority of attacks on the average network. IPv6 and WANs: Your company has offices all over the nation which means you are utilizing a WAN or wide area network. IPv6 will work even better with WAN’s because â€Å"The expansion of the Internet is also tied to the rapid development and market penetration of enabling technologies such as high-speed broadband and wireless access. Many enterprises have shifted from point-to-point, ATM, and Frame Relay infrastructures to IP-based local- and wide-area networks (LAN and WAN) for basic business operations. Traditional voice carriers are migrating their voice network to IP-based transport to reduce or eliminate future capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) related to redundant parallel network infrastructures. These IP-based technologies modify an application’s landscape by changing the use of the Internet from a client/server model to a more distributed model or peer-to-peer model. Very rapid and successful adoption of distributed applications such as Voice over Internet (VoIP), instant messaging, content sharing, and Internet gaming leads people with â€Å"always-on† and â€Å"always best† access to the Internet to be content producers as well as consumers. An expanded IP address space is necessary to support this paradigm change in the way the Internet is used† (Grossetete, Popoviciu, Wettling, 2008). IPV6 and VPN’s: Another advantage of IPv6 over IPv4 is the benefits it offers associated with VPN’s or virtual private networks. If you plan to implement a VPN or are currently running one, IPv6 will present new advantages. For example, in IPv6 it will be easier to implement a VPN because of the headers. IPv4 does not allow for multiple headers which creates a problem of compatibility within the firewalls of different vendors. IPv6 allows for multiple headers and eliminates this problem. Simply stated, this leads to faster routing. IPv6 and Networking: IPv6 creates a new platform that the Internet can operate on makes for the atmosphere of growth. One of the biggest advantages is the change from peer to peer networking to end to end networking. Peer to peer networking examples are VOiP, online video gaming, online video-conferencing etc. End to end networking allows for a group of computers to talk to each other without the need for process through a server first. That is a huge advantage! IPv6 and Better Node Configurations: Next, IPv6 trumps IPv4 because of node configurations. Every piece of equipment attached to a network must be configured properly and now it will be easier than ever with IPv6. This is because IPv6 offers automatic configuration versus the stateful configuration needed for IPv4. What does this mean you ask? It means that, â€Å"In stateless auto configuration, a host can automatically configure its own IPv6 address and does not need any assistance from a stateful address server. Entire IPv6 prefixes rather than just an address are delivered to a device. This particular feature enables routers to easily auto configure their interfaces and can be used very effectively in broadband access networks to dynamically provide customer gateways† (www. IPv6. com, 2011). IPv6 and the ease of administration: Another great advantage of IPv6 over IPv4 is the ease of administration. In IPV4, any new addressing must be done manually whenever there is a change to the network. With IPv6, you can now have numbering done automatically which makes for easier transitions in network changes of any sort. As you can see, the advantages of IPv6 over IPv4 are numerous. While there is much skepticism on how the transition with be costly and burdensome, it has actually been implemented already in various parts of the world. The earlier you start, the better off you will be should there be any kinds to iron out. This has to be a thoroughly planned event and takes time to changeover. IPv6 creates a new world of internet functionality and growth. Your business can flourish with the advantages of IPv6. As with any new technology, the price is typically higher in the beginning but the long run, you save money because your company is more efficient thus more profitable! â€Å"The improvement in network reliability would build the confidence of both enterprise and individual users in the integrity of network transactions. That would certainly yield high returns. † (IPv6: Its time, 2003).