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Time Is Up- IPv6 OMB Mandate

by Sciencelogic

Three years ago, the OMB set a June 2008 deadline "by which all
agencies' infrastructure (network backbones) must be using IPv6
and agency networks must interface with this infrastructure."

Agencies are supposed to demonstrate that they can: 
*Transmit IPv6 traffic from the Internet and external peers,
through the core (WAN), to the LAN.
*Transmit IPv6 traffic from the LAN, through the core (WAN), out
to the Internet and external peers.
*Transmit IPv6 traffic from the LAN, through the core (WAN), to
another LAN (or another node on the same LAN).
(Source: OMB IPv6 FAQs)

One year ago, the OMB reviewed the Enterprise Architecture
Assessment Framework results and found that six of the
twenty-four agencies were on track to achieve the June deadline.
Two months ago, there was a good article by Carolyn Marsan Duffy
about the status of compliance. Take a look at this article
because it seemed like there was a lot of backpedaling going on
about meeting the date-using phrases like "we don't like the term
mandate" and "more of a recommendation than a mandate." At the
time, only three agencies were in compliance.

Duffy just wrote an updated article, "Feds say they have aced
IPv6 deadline", and suddenly two months later, all lights seem
green. As of June 24, ten of the twenty-four agencies sent emails
to the OMB stating that "they have successfully transmitted IPv6
packets." Fourteen still need to report in, but none have asked
for an extension. And all of it was done through the regular tech
refresh budget over the past three years. So if this is true,
kudos to the feds!

Right around the time of the first not-so-rosy article, we ran a
survey at FOSE, the big federal government IT show. We asked
attendees if their agencies would be ready by the deadline: 
*33% said they would be ready
*6% said they were already there
*33% said they would NOT be ready
*About a quarter didn't know

What was really interesting is that we asked this same question
in 2007, and the audience was equally split (yes/no) on whether
or not their agencies would meet the mandate-1 in 5 (2007)
instead of 1 in 3 (2008).
 
So what can explain these numbers? Surprisingly, out of the
attendees we talked to, only 65% of them said that IPv6 is
important to their operations, making it second to last on the
list of IT priorities covered by the survey. Maybe the answer
lies in the relative "unimportance" of the milestone - that just
the network backbones (and the routers supporting them) be
capable of passing IPv6 packets. The true test for government IT
workers will be when actual IPv6 applications must be supported
which will impact networks, systems, application and monitoring
tools throughout the government.

So was this a nice checklist item for the Bush administration?
This initial deadline is the only one for IPv6 mandates from the
current OMB incarnation. Actually running IPv6 applications,
that's a whole 'nother story, apparently for a new
administration.

Julia Lim is VP of Marketing for ScienceLogic, at IT company
specializing in <a href="http://www.sciencelogic.com">server
monitoring software</a>. Julia has extensive corporate, strategic
and product marketing experience at companies ranging from
early-stage startups to large public firms. She has an MBA in
technology marketing from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Syndicated by Top Gazebos - www.topgazebos.net

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