As the Acting Minister for Communications and Information Technology, I am very pleased to be able to provide a government perspective on IPv6 and to speak to this group on this important issue.
First of all I would like to thank you, Murray, for your introduction. I thank you also for the work you are doing to drive the adoption of IPv6 in New Zealand with the IPv6 Steering Group.
I congratulate you and the sponsors for organising this series of events.
I would like to recognise the contributions of InternetNZ for their hosting of the Steering Group, and congratulate and thank the other gold sponsors, TelecomNZ Mobility and FX Networks, and all the other sponsors for their generous support.
I have a particular pleasure in acknowledging the presence of Dr Vinton Cerf who I had the pleasure of meeting last night at the Internet Industry Awards Dinner. Vint is of course one of the two original authors of the seminal May 1974 paper that began the evolution of the Internet Protocol.
It is very appropriate that you are here to contribute to this series of Hui. I want to thank you for once again for returning to New Zealand to lend your invaluable support to the development of the Internet in New Zealand.
IMPORTANCE OF INTERNET
I do not need to emphasise the critical importance of the Internet for this country to this audience. A large chunk of our national productivity growth is in your hands.
The Internet Protocol has proven to be remarkably enduring and adaptive to the massive changes that have taken place since its introduction.
Since IPv4 was first adopted in 1983, the number of Internet hosts has expanded by a factor of over one million.
But with serious planning taking place to extend the number of Internet users from the present 1.5 billion to encompass the whole population of the planet - and the billions of intelligent machines that they will use - the limitation of the 4 billion possible addresses in the IPv4 address space becomes very obvious.
It is salutary to reflect that IPv6 has been around for nearly half the lifetime of IPv4. Unlike the Internet itself, however, its adoption has been very slow.
In part this has been because of the ingenuity of the technical community in extending the utilisation of the IPv4 address space by various means.
But a key reason is the very success of the Internet itself. Making changes to the key infrastructure of such a critically important infrastructure is not to be contemplated lightly.
Changing a fundamental communications protocol on the Internet can be compared to changing the tyre on a Formula One car in the middle of a Grand Prix while in the centre of the track.
REASON FOR HUI
The rationale for these Hui is to convince you as key business decision-makers that there is a business case to be made for IPv6 adoption. Of course such a change will inevitably entail costs and risks. The goal of course is to minimise the costs and risks, while maximising the benefits.
The business case arises in part from the risks that your business will be exposed to arising from the shortage of IPv4 address space. But this is only the beginning of the story.
Many of the ‘work around' strategies that have been devised do overcome the growing shortage of addresses but, in themselves, impose limitations on the fundamental simplicity, and consequently, operation of the Internet.
These limits interfere with the flexibility and capacity of the Internet to adapt to new uses and innovations. In short, these ‘fixes' themselves create problems which are all the more damaging because they are not immediately apparent. Typically they only become obvious in hindsight.
We need to have IPv6 widely adopted if we are to be able to take full advantage of the mobile Internet and of the ‘Internet of things' involving such things as intelligent houses and intelligent transport systems.
A key driver for IPv6 is to make possible new services and business opportunities on a large scale, such as networked sensors for industrial or home automation services.
There is a very strong emphasis on IPv6 adoption in many of our important trading partners. Japan, Korea and China are good examples. The Internet provides a trade route of growing importance to New Zealand exporters. We have to remain competitive in all aspects of our use of the opportunities that the Internet affords us.
We must not be complacent in expecting these market opportunities to remain as accessible as they are today, without keeping up with technological change.
THE GOVERNMENT'S VIEW
I can tell you that the Minister for Communications and Information Technology does not believe that regulatory intervention is appropriate.
Adoption of IPv6 needs to be lead by the private sector. The private sector must recognise that adopting IPv6 is in their own best interests to protect their investment in online capabilities into the future.
Issues of advantages and disadvantages, costs, risks, timing, methodology etc, have to be for each enterprise to assess for itself. There is no single best answer for all.
Where the government can assist is in raising awareness. The Ministry of Economic Development is providing some funding to assist the work of the IPv6 Steering Group.
LEADERSHIP BY GOVT
The other main area for the Government is providing leadership - by getting its own house in order.
The KAREN network has been IPv6 capable from its inception.
The government spends around $2 billion on ICT each year, about 40% of the total New Zealand expenditure on ICT. We are looking to use ultra-fast broadband to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the economy as whole, and particularly from a government perspective, in the key Health and Education sectors.
We are initiating a syndicated procurement programme where government agencies with expertise in a particular area will coordinate purchasing strategies across government.
All of these initiatives offer opportunities for the government to take a leading role by future proofing with the adoption of IPv6 throughout the state sector.
A recent example of this is the one dot govt suite of services which is replacing the Government Shared Network. One dot govt internet services are IPv6 ready today and the standard wide area network offering is also IPv6 capable.
We view this as a potential vehicle to provide a default IPv6 gateway for state sector organisations. The gateway will be complemented with a standards-based network interface to allow interoperability with other standards-based implementations.
This will enable increased collaboration both within and across government entities, which should help to deliver improved services to the public.
The Department of Internal Affairs, for which I am the Minister, is currently exploring opportunities to implement IPv6 within its own network in order to build capability and develop a model for the wider public sector.
I am confident that these measures being undertaken by the government will provide the confidence boost that the New Zealand Internet industry itself needs to invest in IPv6.
IPv6 enablement associated with government purchasing and ICT programmes, broadband investment, and the opportunities enabled by developments in Health and Education will ensure that ISPs and carriers have a strong incentive to provide for IPv6 connectivity. This capability will of course be available to the whole country.
So, it is very important that this not be seen as an end in itself, but rather as the launch of an ongoing strategy to move us forward as a nation towards full IPv6 adoption over time.
CONNECTIVITY
Our main Internet access providers need to be able to provide the essential connectivity both for IPv6 users and for those who need to be able to link to them.
In this connection, I congratulate InternetNZ for ensuring that the dot nz registry is fully IPv6 enabled and also that some of our key sponsors for this event are fully IPv6 capable.
Our universities and polytechnics must ensure that ICT professionals are fully equipped to deal with an IPv6 environment. I understand that you will be receiving an outline of this capability later in the day.
We need to monitor the uptake of IPv6 both in New Zealand and around the world to ensure that we keep pace with other countries which are moving forward to take advantage of the opportunities.
Fortunately this is an area where it is not necessary for New Zealand to be pioneers. There is extensive documentary material to draw on around the world. I note that Tony Hill and Kevin Karp from IPv6Now are here to contribute their knowledge of the Australian experience to the programme. I thank them for their willingness to share their experience with us.
CONCLUSION
On behalf of the Government, I will conclude by once again thanking Murray and the members of the Steering Group who are working hard to ensure we have a secure and effective future for the Internet in New Zealand.