IPv6 to power e-business

Australian businesses, particularly small businesses, will have better access to e-business through next-generation Internet resources based on Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

The Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU), au Domain Administration Ltd, the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association and BuildersNet Pty Ltd will work together on a new project to be funded under the ITOL (IT Online) program of the Australian Government.

IPv6 is a more powerful Internet protocol that can deliver a vastly increased scale Internet with automatic security and autoconfiguration potentially producing substantial benefits for businesses, particularly in international e-commerce.

"This project will develop new business models for adoption of IPv6 and transition planning tools," according to Tony Hill, president of ISOC-AU. "We anticipate these tools will be invaluable for businesses looking to become early adopters of next-generation Internet technologies."

Chris Disspain, CEO of .au Domain Administration said the organization works hard to make sure that Australian Internet domain names serve the interests of individual and business Internet users, and this project will ensure that .au domain names are fully updated to work with IPv6.

Brett Biddington, chair of Australian Defence Information and Electronic Systems Association, said the Australian Defence Department is already committed to the implementation of IPv6 by 2013.

"This project will provide essential building blocks for Defence suppliers who will need to work with IPv6 products and supply chains to deliver secure networking capability to our armed forces," he said.

Graham Orr, business development manager with BuildersNet, said that the building and construction industries consist of complex supply chain interactions among thousands of businesses. IPv6 technology is suited to the needs of the industry for e-commerce transactions with its capacity to address many individual devices as well as computers, he said.

Specifically, the project will deliver:

• A map of software, services and technologies currently taking advantage of IPv6;
• Integrated business models, checklists and tools to enable Australian businesses to more easily adopt IPv6;
• Information resources for building broad awareness of IPv6 opportunities;
• Some elements of the underpinning infrastructure to support IPv6 addresses by Australians.