IPv6 Proxy

Blue Coat Systems, the technology leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced that it will demonstrate a secure migration path for applications and services from IPv4 to IPv6 during Interop Tokyo, 10-12 June, 2009. The technology demonstration will be part of ShowNet, Interop Tokyo’s network that will showcase the interoperability of emerging technologies and service architectures, such as virtualization, cloud computing and IPv6.

In the early design stages of the Internet, IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) was created to enable devices to communicate with one another and supported roughly 4 billion IP addresses. However, the exponential growth in the number of communications devices using IP addresses is exhausting the available supply, which is expected to last through the next 12 to 24 months. At that time, only IPv6 addresses or existing IPv4 addresses will be available for use by new communications devices, and as a result, organizations will need to be able to transparently resolve IPv6 address requests, a problem that has been magnified by the growing adoption of Web-based services.

“While some organizations, particularly service providers and governments, have been preparing their networks for the transition to IPv6, the same attention hasn’t yet been paid to applications, creating potential security and services continuity challenges for businesses,” said Qing Li, Blue Coat Systems senior technologist and co-author of a two-volume reference series on IPv6. “The lack of true IPv6 application-oriented solutions, coupled with an economic climate of constrained IT budgets, will force organizations to investigate migration strategies in contrast to full-scale upgrades.”

With an intelligent IPv6 proxy appliance acting as an intermediary, the retrieval of applications, services and data in either an IPv4 or IPv6 environment is transparent to the users. This migration strategy ensures business process continuity without the complications associated with address translations, rewriting applications or upgrading the underlying network infrastructure. Additionally, secure proxy appliances are already an integral part of networks, so this migration path represents the least intrusive transition, enabling organizations to maximize return on existing and new network infrastructure investments and to scale networks in line with changing business requirements.

“To successfully navigate the transition to IPv6, organizations need a strategy that enables the secure migration of business applications and services without the need to rewrite them for an IPv6 environment,” continued Qing. “By utilizing an intelligent IPv6 proxy appliance to bridge IPv4 and IPv6 networks at the application layer, organizations can maintain their existing network and application configuration while enforcing compliance with corporate IT policies.”