Australia's defense department leads the way with IPv6

02.11.2005
Supporting the local IT industry is one of the key drivers behind the Australian Defence Force's migration to IPv6, according to its director general of information policy, David Richards.

The Defence Force plans to migrate to IPv6 by 2013 to remain interoperable with allied nations in an increasingly IP-enabled world while fostering the IT industry, Richards said at Australia's first IPv6 summit in Canberra this week.

"The Department of Defence is a strong supporter of IPv6, and we also support the Australian IT industry," he said.

"Defence expects that the early adoption of IPv6 will assist the Australian IT industry in its business case for investing in IPv6. The department is a major buyer of IT services and hardware, so by transitioning to IPv6, we hope to stimulate interest in the new protocol within the Australian industry and thereby increase the range of solutions that will be available here."

The three other drivers were future-proofing (meeting future needs such as network-centric warfare), interoperability with the US and other allied forces and also simply that IPv6 is inevitable.

"Therefore, rather than wait for the emergence of uncontrolled islands of IPv6, we intend to take the initiative and carefully manage the introduction of the new protocol," Richards said.