Imagine trying to describe the explosive growth of the Internet over the last two decades to the uninitiated. It’s difficult to remember what information gathering, business, and yes, even life was like before the Internet became part of our daily experience.  The infiltration of the Internet continues, spurred on by new users as well as the influx of smart phones, tablets, and other web-enabled devices.

In 1998, the Internet community recognized that the level of addresses provided by the Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) would be unable to meet worldwide demand.  Thus, the creation of IPv6 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was begun.  With the last IPv4 address blocks having been handed out in February, 2011; it’s time to seriously consider your business’s ability to adapt to the new protocol.  In addition to 340 undecillion (that’s 36 zeroes!) new addresses and more users than ever, IPv6 also offers increased security and more efficient movement of information along independent networks.

For now, technological adaptations such as Network Address Translation (NAT) are sufficient to deal with the increasing traffic and demand.  Very soon, though, as IPv6 addresses begin to be distributed and users connect using the new IP, a parallel system (with an undetermined level of connection to the old one) will be increasingly in use.

Most business and personal computers are already IPv6 ready, but a bigger concern for business is their Virtual Private Server (VPS) host.  Routers, switches, and security devices in use by your VPS host may or may not be capable of communicating with IPv6.  This is bad news for new and expanding businesses, or frankly, any businesses who want to ensure they stay ahead of the game.

Lunarpages Internet Solutions is an award-winning and technologically driven hosting company with a commitment to customer service at its core.  It makes sense, then, that Lunarpages is already fully IPv6 ready and has made the technological commitment to remain ahead of the game for the benefit of all our customers – current and future.  If you’re currently in need of web hosting services, or if you are unsure of your current hosting providers IPv6 status, consider Lunarpages Internet Solutions hosting.  With multiple options from basic to managed hosting and beyond, Lunarpages is an industry leader in technological expertise, performance, and customer relations.