CIO council adds to IPv6 transition primer

In the newest additions to the IPv6 Transition Guidance, the council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee has provided a list of best practices and transition elements that agencies should use as they work to meet the deadline.

“The big takeaway is to get to that consistent set of definitions and terminology so we’re all working on the same problem and scope,” said John McManus, NASA’s chief technology officer and chairman of AIC’s subcommittee on emerging technology.

The document “gives people a common structure and common set of terms.”

But the document itself stated that there are few success stories to draw from because of the limited experience in IPv6 transition, meaning that, for the most part, agencies could be on their own.

“Since IPv6 is the ‘next generation’ Internet protocol and introduces new standards, agencies are faced with the challenge of limited IPv6 transition ‘success stories’ on which to model their enterprise transformation strategy,” the document said.

These unknowns have some industry officials concerned that the definitions in the guidebook are not specific enough and do not connect with the initial guidebook’s release tying agency transition plans to their enterprise architectures.

The transition elements are more a list of concerns and what to look out for instead of specific solutions, said Walt Grabowski, senior director of network solutions at SI International of Reston, Va., the company managing the Defense Department’s transition.

OMB and the council released the first chapter of the guidance last November, urging agencies to incorporate the transition to IPv6 in their enterprise architectures. OMB also required agencies to complete IPv6 progress reports in February. By June 30, they are to complete an inventory of IP-aware applications and peripherals on their network backbones, and produce an IPv6 transition impact analysis [GCN, Dec. 12, 2005, Page 1].

The latest additions, released in May, are a compilation of existing recommendations and best practices gathered from the Defense Department, which has been testing and preparing for the transition for years, the private sector, and the Internet research and development community.

For instance, the document urged agencies to perform adequate testing and training to ensure that the transition is successful.

Also, agencies must start developing an information security plan in accordance with the Federal Information Security Management Act and other government statutes, the council said.

Agencies will need to replicate security applications being used in the current IPv4, the council said, and agencies must identify public-key infrastructure, key management and policy management infrastructures that meet the scalability and security verification requirements for intra-network communications.

But the document lacks specifics, Grabowski said, which could leave agencies hanging as they incorporate IPv6 transition plans into their EAs.

Grabowski said the transition elements section does not have the larger enterprise architectural picture.

McManus, though, said the guidance was well vetted within the council and various IPv6 working groups, and he disputes any notion that it is incomplete. “We have done a tremendous amount of outreach,” he said. “We put the definitions out there” for public comment.

Grabowksi said the document is a good beginning and will need to mature as the transition becomes a reality.

“It’s a good start, you’re starting from nothing,” Grabowksi said.

“I would expect the level of understanding, maturity and depth will match the enterprise architecture view of this.”

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