The Internet even as we know it is now officially too large for its britches.
The organization that assigns IP addresses in North America — the numbers that identify every computer, smart-phone and device connected to the Internet — ran out of numbers in 2015. It’s not the end of the world, because there’s a newer, more robust system rolling out, but it is a milestone inside our shared online history, nonetheless.
The issue is there are only those four numbers in addresses, a system called IPv4. It’s been set up for over 30 years, “and also the architects of the Internet could not have predicted the amazing success and universal adoption of this Internet and World Wide Web,” said John Curran, president and chief executive of this registry.
So work has been under way for years on what’s called IPv6 — longer addresses that also include letters. You can find only about 4.3 billion possible IPv4 addresses, which engineers assumed would be much more than enough in the 1990s. With IPv6, you can find about 340 trillion trillion trillion combinations.
When your organization is certainly one of those that waited to embrace IPv6, then you’re in luck, as there are plenty of resources accessible to allow you to together with your IPv6 planning and deployment.
This is the biggest change because the inception of this internet. There is certainly an international shortage of IPv4 addresses, while the world is getting ready for IPv6.