The IPv6 Matrix project checks for IPv6 connectivity of the 1 million most popular Web sites worldwide. A fair number of them are based in the UK. However, the UK server pool is poorly connected to IPv6: whilst the figure for Germany is 6.99% and the European Leader Slovakia at 13.94%, only 0.5% of sites are connected via a dual stack IPv4 and IPv6.
One of the reasons for this poor record is the lack of pro-activity from the government to actively mandate IPv6 in its IT procurement contracts. It was also found that a false sense of comfort with the availability of IPv4 addresses in the UK made it unattractive to invest in updating networks to run IPv6. Unfortunately, the 6UK initiative failed to change this perception. With no demand, there was no incentive for supply.
A call was made for all those present, to promote the use of IPv6 in their organisation. Without a widespread roll-out of IPv6, the UK software developer community would be disadvantaged compared to its European neighbours.
This session was organised by Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond from ISOC England.