PDMS, the Island’s leading software development company, is joining some of the world’s biggest Internet organisations for IPv6 day. (www.worldipv6day.org) On June 8th PDMS, along with companies such as Facebook and Google, will offer their online content (www.pdms.com) over IPv6 (Internet protocol version 6). An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique set of numbers that identifies an electronic device of any kind that is connected to the Internet. These numbers, or IP addresses, are critical to the operation of the Internet. Since 1981, IPv4 has been the publicly used version of the Internet Protocol, and it is currently the foundation for most Internet communications. Due to the rapid growth of the Internet over the past decade, the industry is now running out of IPv4 addresses. IPv6 is the next generation of IP addresses and it allows for vastly more numerical addresses. An often quoted fact is that IPv6 could provide each and every square micrometer of the earth’s surface with 5,000 unique addresses! Deploying IPv6 is vital to allow the Internet to continue to expand and for ongoing innovation. IPv6 is not directly compatible with IPv4, meaning that a device connected via IPv4 cannot communicate directly with a device connected using IPv6. This means that if your content and services are only available over IPv4 a potential customer using IPv6 will not be able to even see your website. PDMS have been taking pro-active steps to ensure that they are ready to adopt IPv6 and to continue a seamless provision of their Managed Services to their clients. This has involved the commissioning of new hardware, configuration of key areas of PDMS’ hosting network and interfacing with Internet Service Providers, that are already facilitating the migration to IPv6. IPV6 day provides the opportunity for a 24 hour ‘test flight’ with the goal of motivating organisations across the technology industry to prepare their services for IPV6, raise awareness and ensure a smooth transition as IPV4 addresses run out. PDMS, Infrastructure Manager, Neal Kelly commented ‘’We were keen to get involved with the IPv6 day for a number of reasons; it’s great to keep us on our toes and move our infrastructure forward, and being an early adopter it gives us the confidence that we can provide future-proofed services to our clients, and we also like a good challenge.” ENDS