We are in an awkward point in the history of the Internet. IPv4 address depletion has occurred yet we expect to use IPv4 for the next 15 to 20 years. Organizations see two paths before them. One alternative is to use continue to use IPv4 and expect to use multiple layers of network address translation (NAT) for many years to come. The other alternative is to start to use IPv6, however, the majority of enterprise organizations and content providers have not embraced the protocol.

IT execs know they will have to deploy IPv6 at some point, but where to begin? One approach that establishes some  IPv6 capability without spending a lot of time or money is to start at the perimeter.

Freelance writer Susan Perschke recently sat down with Cisco Vice President and Chief Security Officer John N. Stewart for an in-depth discussion of the state of enterprise security.

The key difference between Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) is the way they can be integrated into your organization's network topology. Most organizations may deploy a server load balancer/ADC in-line as a Layer-3 reverse-proxy-server.

Brocade this week released new software for its application delivery controllers that gives users greater visibility into performance, and enhances IPv6 communications.

Cisco this week expanded its smart grid portfolio for utilities with a reference architecture, products and services intended to modernize the electric grid.

All new customers of the South Australia-based ISP, Internode, will be automatically assigned IPv6 addresses

Looking for practical, non-biased advice about how to deploy IPv6? The Internet Society is launching a new Web portal that will be a central resource for standards documents, best practices, case studies and other useful information for network engineers planning to adopt IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol.

Although he acknowledges businesses have yet to embrace IPv6, security guru, Scott Hogg, says that doesn’t mean IT executives can ignore the security problems that the next generation Internet protocol can present.

A dozen of the world's largest Internet companies - including Facebook, Google and Comcast - have committed to June 6, as the start date for their production deployments of IPv6, an upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

If your IPv6 strategy is to delay implementation as long as you can, you still must address IPv6 security concerns right now.

The world is almost out of IP addresses--or at least it's almost out of the IPv4 addresses that IT admins and users are most familiar with. Fortunately, IPv6 has been developed to exponentially expand the pool of available IP addresses while also providing a few other benefits.

The most popular Web sites are under increasing pressure to add support for IPv6, a long-anticipated upgrade to IPv4, the Internet's main communications protocol.

Will IPv6 finally arrive stateside in 2010? That's the question U.S. ISPs and network equipment vendors are asking themselves after seeing a rise in IPv6 activity during the last six months of 2009.

IPv6 -- the next-generation Internet protocol -- isn't keeping too many U.S. CIOs and network managers up worrying at night. But perhaps it should.

Ave Maria University, a liberal arts college near Naples, Fla., is looking to adopt IPv6 across its two data centers and all of its facilities management systems, which are used for monitoring building access, temperature control and power management. The goal: improved energy conservation across its campus.

Although he acknowledges that businesses have yet to embrace IPv6, security guru Scott Hogg says that doesn't mean IT executives can ignore the security problems that the next generation Internet protocol can present. After all, he notes, operating systems such as Microsoft Vista and Linux are already IPv6 capable and thus any networks that use them might be handling IPv6 traffic without their operators' knowledge.