Please tell us a little about Oxilion

Oxilion was founded in April 2000 and focuses on internet services within the datacenter. The product range varies from hosting packages for the consumer market and complete solutions for the SME, based on managed virtual machines with shared storage.

All related services such as backups, disaster recovery, network connectivity and high availability are managed by our engineers.

We provide our services from five datacenters across the Netherlands and provide internet connectivity in Enschede and Amsterdam; the connections to and between all locations are redundant.

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of Oxilion?

IPv6 developments where started immediately when Oxilion organized its network independence. Previously Oxilion used assigned PA IPv4 space from the datacenter. Becoming independent was the next step for Oxilion. We received our RIPE membership, AS-number and PA-space (IPv4 and IPv6) late 2008 and we focused the BGP routing equipment towards high-end IPv6 capable hardware.
Since Oxilion is running on this network, from the beginning of 2009, the focus on IPv6 is growing and for this year IPv6 is to be integrated in our complete product range.

What is the current status of IPv6 at Oxilion?

IPv6 is integrated in our complete network. We are running on the prefix 2a00:d10::/32 and doing about 5-10% IPv6 traffic currently which is rather large compared to other known statistics.
We promote IPv6 by offering it standard with all our (virtual)servers; in addition our customers can use IPv6 traffic for free for the whole of 2010!

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for Oxilion?

As mentioned we focus on IPv6 by installing IPv6 by default on new servers. And at the moment we are integrating the support on our existing products. At the end of 2010 we want to have it as ‘commonly’ used as IPv4 now.
We actively ask our biggest customers to embrace IPv6. We believe that we are the chicken in the chicken-and-the-egg. Or was it the egg?

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

First of all: use it! With the fast decrease of freely available IPv4 space at the moment we need to act now to avoid running out of IP’s.
We actively monitor IPv4 space by plotting the statistics on our large LCD screen at our NOC. We use IPv6 at our office and are using Google IPv6 services which they allowed us to do by changing their nameservers for us.

IPv6 is hot and IPv4 is not!

Thanks for your answers Wouter. Perhaps Oxilion should change their slogan to: Oxilion IPv6 obvious!

Please tell us a little about Kumina

Kumina supports infrastructure for large websites and other internet-related services. We do Linux system administration, and partner with other companies who provide hardware and network support. Kumina currently has three employees, of which two are founders and equal owners.

We’ve designed and implemented solutions for several large websites which need highly available infrastructure. Our customers include several Dutch companies and some companies from other European countries (currently the UK, Sweden and Denmark), some of which have a 24×7 support contract and an availability guarantee.

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of Kumina?

We’ve often toyed with it ourselves, but when we had to redesign our internal servers last year and our hosting providers both were starting their IPv6 tests, we decided we wanted to be completely IPv6 ready. As a result, our complete infrastructure is dual stack, supporting both IPv4 and IPv6. The one exception is our PBX, because Asterisk only has rudementary support for IPv6.

Customers that we host ourselves are also IPv6 ready, but none really use their capabilities. Self-hosted customers are very dependent on the infrastructure of their hoster, none of whom have an IPv6 deployment yet. We, however, can now say we have enough experience with it to feel comfortable deploying it at a customer’s site.

What is the current status of IPv6 at Kumina?

We’re fully IPv6 ready, except for our PBX.

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for Kumina?

We expect more and more customers asking us to make their setups dual stack. IPv6 will become more and more prevalent, especially once the IPv4 address space is ‘full’. So in a few years time we expect all our customers to be dual stack.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

It’s a bit of a shame that many of the larger providers are so slow in adopting it. If they had more support for it, I think IPv6 would be far more prevalent than it currently is. Essentially, it’s not that big a deal, mostly similar to IPv4 with a few additional hurdles.

Thanks Tim for your time and answers!

Today we have a Q&A with Joost Tholhuijsen. Joost is the owner of Tholhuijsen Consultancy and an active member of the Dutch IPv6-Taskforce.

Please tell us a little about Tholhuijsen Consultancy

Tholhuijsen Consultancy assists medium and large organisations in network
migrations. We help international companies in selecting their WAN vendor
and solution, we lead IP renumbering projects and advise in broader IT
infrastructure issues.

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of Tholhuijsen Consultancy?

Tholhuijsen Consultancy started to orientate on IPv6 in 1999, and in 2002
met with Vint Cerf on the subject. In 2009 IPv6 was adopted as one of the
main activities of Tholhuijsen Consultancy. For Syntens, an initiative of
the Dutch Minisitry of Economic Affairs we developed and IPv6 Workshop for
decision makers in small and medium Enterprises.

What is the current status of IPv6 at Tholhuijsen Consultancy?

Tholhuijsen Consultancy has its infrastructure running native IPv6 and
tunneled IPv6. To properly test the market situation one of the networks is
even native IPv6 only. And But Tholhuijsen Consultancy does see IPv6 not
only as part of it’s infrastructure, but more as part of its core business.
Training, creating practical awareness, creating information material and
advising and assisting in IPv6 integration are our day to day work. Via
www.ipv6specialisten.nl Tholhuijsen Consultancy strives to make practical
and skilled IPv6 specialists active in the market.

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for Tholhuijsen Consultancy?

Tholhuijsen Consultancy is a member of the Dutch IPv6 Task Force, which
foundation was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2005. The
general purpose of the Task Force is to promote the adoption of IPv6. The
Task Force however has limited means to fullfill its role. Internationally
and nationally outside the official IPv6 promotional bodies number of
initiatives arise. Some important web-sites like Google and YouTube see it
as their responsibility to promote IPv6, and have made their sites IPv6
reachable. Others like Ebay’s Marktplaats strive to do so on a short term.
We expect that initiatives like these help in breaking the infamous
chicken-egg situation that some see as the main barrier for IPv6. Awareness
of the coming IPv4 shortage is rising, but even in the top 20 of best
visited web-sites in February 2010 it was still not at 100 per cent.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

ICT infrastructures are run by people with broad responsibilities.
Stakeholders are users, management and last but not least controllers.
Implementing IPv6 is not trivial for all of these parties. The speed in
which IPv6 is adopted for this reason does not follow the aspirations of
IETF, IANA, ISOC etc. at the pace of these parties. Given that fact that
IPv6 is necessary, mature and promising, the point of no-return for IPv6 has
been passed some time ago, and organisations ignoring IPv6 might ignore
their role in the mid-term future.

Thank you for your time and your answers Joost and we hope to hear more of your work in the future.

In this Q&A session were talking to Robin Elfrink, Robin is a Network Engineer at the Dutch ISP Introweb. And he will tell us about Introweb and their intrest in IPv6.

Please tell us a little about Introweb

Introweb was founded in 1995 as a subsidiary of electronics and security company. We provide connectivity (DSL and fiber), hosting and services as a package, specializing in high-availability and continuity. Introweb has about 35 employees. The way Introweb works has already resulted in a ISO27001 certification.

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of Introweb?

We got our IPv6 prefix just before 2004, and have since been working to gain experience with it.

What is the current status of IPv6 at Introweb?

About three years ago we started to implement IPv6 in our backbone to
any equipment that supports it. Barring a single switch, our entire
network infrastructure is now IPv6-aware. When buying new equipment we
require IPv6 capabilities.

To promote the use of IPv6 by our clients, we offer a native IPv6 ADSL
connection for the symbolic amount of EUR (IPv) 6,- per month.

http://www.introweb.net/producten/categorien/internet_toegang/economy_adsl/ipv6_adsl.shtml

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for Introweb?

We see that more companies are experimenting with IPv6. We encourage
that, but it is difficult to quantify expectations. We are certainly ready.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

There will be a moment in the not too distant future that parts of the
internet will be accessible only over IPv6. When that happens you’d
better be ready.

Thanks Robin for your time to anwser our questions! Keep up the good work!

Today a Question and Awser session with the makers of the Fritz!Box modem/router AVM. We are talking to Eric van Uden who is an Sales Manager at AVM.

Please tell us a little about AVM

Founded in 1986 in Berlin, AVM is one of the top two manufacturers of ADSL devices in Europe. With over 50 percent of the market share, it is the leading manufacturer in Germany, Europe’s largest market. AVM has 460 employees and generated a turnover of € 220 million in the 2008 fiscal year. The Berlin-based communications specialist has received numerous awards for its innovative FRITZ!Box product range, developed and produced in Germany. FRITZ!Box enables fast, user-friendly DSL access, easy networking, inexpensive Internet telephony and versatile multimedia applications

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of AVM

First internal discussions in 2007, first German public beta at CEBIT2009

What is the current status of IPv6 at AVM?

After several public beta versions in the last eight months and regarding the feedback that we got from the public testers and several ISP test labs we consider the status of the IPv6 support in FRITZ!Box to be quite mature. We are ready to offer an IPv6-ready CPE to ISPs that want to roll-out IPv6.

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for AVM?

As we see more and more growth for IPv6 in Europe, we expect that IPv6 support in CPEs will be soon a mandatory requirement for most of our customers. There are more and more ISPs orienting on IPv6 and some of them already started with their IPv6 role-out. I think we will see by the end of 2010 a lot more IPv6 ISPs. In the Netherlands you can see that more and more important webservers have an IPv6 address, like weeronline,geenstijl, Telegraaf, KNMI etc.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

Everybody in the industry should -at the latest now- begin to plan the migration to IPv6. Those who have already started will be in a better position than those who are still hesitant. IPv4 address exhaustion is not a myth but a simple fact that cannot be ignored.

Eric thanks for your time and effort for this Q&A. We hope to see more IPv6 enabled hardware from AVM in the future!

Were talking with Marco Davids, Senior IT Specialist – SIDN ICT Operations & Support.

Please tell us a little about SIDN

SIDN is responsible for the functional stability and development of the
.nl Internet domain. As well as registering and allocating .nl domain
names. The organisation enables Internet users all over the world to
make use of these labels at any given moment.

SIDN’s rapidly growing domain name register now contains more than 3.4
million .nl domain names. In consequence, SIDN is a key player in the
global Internet community. The organisation’s services are provided to
the public through a network of two thousand independent commercial
Internet service providers, the so called registrars.

SIDN also plays an active role in the technical, regulatory and
political development of the Internet, at the national and international
levels. Through the ENUM Foundation for the Netherlands, SIDN is
additionally at the forefront of preparations to bring ENUM to the
Netherlands.

Formed in 1996, SIDN is based in the Dutch town of Arnhem, where it
employs a little over fifty people.

Corporate website: http://www.sidn.nl/

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of SIDN

IPv6 experiments started around 2001 in a testbed environment with
tunnels towards SURFnet, the Dutch academic network. Later, the first
nameservers that are authoritative for the .nl zone where upgraded to
support IPv6. In 2005 the SIDN backbone was fully upgraded to support
native IPv6, be it with IPv6 address space that was aquired from
SURFnet. At about the same time the Domainname Registration System (DRS)
was adapted to support IPv6 glue addresses. Soon after that an
increasing number of IPv6 glue addresses appeared in the .nl zonefile.

What is the current status of IPv6 at SIDN

SIDN has aquired it’s own IPv6 space from RIPE and is gradually
deploying that in their backbone. Also more nameservers are reachable
via IPv6. At this moment 4 out 7 nameserver instances for .nl support
IPv6. For the ENUM zone 1.3.e164.arpa it is 1 out of 3. The plan is to
increase these numbers as soon as possible.

Furthermore a few of the corporate websites are reachable via IPv6
nowadays. Like for example http://www.werkenbijsidn.nl/. The main site,
http://www.sidn.nl/ will be reachable over IPv6 before the end of 2009.

The next step is to disclose other services via IPv6, like for example
te WHOIS service and the EPP interface, once it becomes available.

In september 2006 we counted 19 IPv6 glue addresses in the .nl zonefile
(compared to 21.369 IPv4 addresses). Today we count 112, compared to
24.874 IPv4 glue addresses.

IPv6 traffic on the .nl nameservers is also increasing slowly, but
gradually.

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for SIDN?

Once IPv4 addresses are exhausted, more and more people will start to
use IPv6. All signs point in that direction. SIDN intends to be fully
prepared when that happens. Way in advance.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

IPv6 is no rocket science. All major vendors support it in a way that is
suitable for production. And IPv4 space is indeed running out. Really,
it is. Today is the day to start looking into IPv6, if you haven’t

already done so. It will save you a steep, stressful learning curve once
the pressure to switch becomes higher.

Have a look at http://www.ipv6actnow.org/ for further information.

Also, if you intend to buy new equipment, make sure it supports IPv6.
This should be a requirement for anything you buy from now on.

Thanks go out to Marco for making some time to answer our questions!