Startup promotes simultaneous upgrades to IPv6, cloud

A start-up consulting firm founded by former Cisco engineers is targeting a new niche for enterprise IT departments: helping them deploy IPv6 and cloud computing simultaneously to reduce overhead costs.

Nephos6 already has a half-dozen US customers, including a healthcare provider and two consumer product manufacturers. The consulting firm is helping these companies with their IPv6 deployments and encouraging them to prepare for private cloud implementations at the same time.

"What we have realised is that for IPv6 and cloud, the adoption processes are very much aligned," says Ciprian Popoviciu, president and CEO of Nephos6 and a 13-year veteran of Cisco. "They're aligned, and they are interdependent....We see a lot of value in companies pursuing both goals in a more cost-effective way."

Running out of IPv4 addresses

Popoviciu explained that enterprises must migrate to IPv6 because the Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses. Soon some of their customer base - particularly in Asia - will use IPv6 to access Web-based services. At the same time, companies are migrating to private cloud-based services and applications that are designed to offer access to applications from anywhere and on any device. Increasingly, those devices are going to have IPv6 addresses.

"I see three major inflection points happening in the enterprise. They look like a pyramid. At the bottom is IPv6, which is all about scalability. On top of that is cloud, which is all about agility. And on top of that is applications and mobility, which is all about capability. These are all happening at the same time, and they are all interdependent," Popoviciu says. "It's very important for organisations to look holistically at all three."

IPv6 first and then private cloud

Popoviciu said deploying IPv6 and cloud computing at the same time "is just a matter of discipline. If you have 800 applications in your environment, imagine evaluating them once for IPv6 readiness and cloud readiness. It's about efficiency. It's about costs."

The 3-month-old company is offering IPv6 and cloud-oriented training and consulting services, ranging from planning to implementation.

Popoviciu says most of the firm's clients are looking at IPv6 and cloud separately, but that Nephos6 is encouraging the rollout of IPv6 first and then private cloud next. "It's very powerful when you can match those two together," he adds.