Written by Karen | 05/09/12 23:00
Fluidata received notice from RIPE on Tuesday that they now have just a /10 left before their last /8 of IPv4 addresses. What this means is, that at current allocation levels, there is about 1 months’ worth of IPv4 space left across Europe before RIPE have to start issuing from their last ever block. When that happens the regulations on new allocations are tightened even further, and in turn, from the beginning of October, Fluidata will start to implement a variety of restrictions. These will include only being able to issue IPv4 space for 1 months’ worth of justification (thus only immediate customer requirements will be satisfied as opposed to taking into consideration future IP needs), applying stricter checks on IP requests, and issuing only one single IPv4 should a customer fail to complete or justify an IP request. What does this mean for our clients? Well with stricter restrictions customers will need to think more intelligently about what IP’s they really require; as stockpiling them will no longer be an option. For multi-site customers, switching to private networks could prove a prudent move - as a means of reducing the amount of public facing IP’s required. The RIPE announcement has brought some of the problems connected with IPv4 exhaustion into sharper focus. For many organisations the depletion of IP addresses threatens to thwart future operations, while for our industry it could hamper its very dynamism. Whether it serves to speeds up the transition to IPv6 though remains to be seen, as the large players in the market are still turning to carrier grade IPv4 NAT instead of deploying IPv6. If you want to know more about how IPv4 exhaustion could affect you and guidance on how to deal with it then please contact your Account Manager.