"The end to sustainable growth of the IPv4-based Internet has arrived and it is time to move on. IPv6 is ready as the successor, so the gating issue is attitude. When CIOs make firm decisions to deploy IPv6, the process is fairly straightforward. Staff will need to be trained, management tools will need to be enhanced, routers and operating systems will need to be updated, and IPv6-enabled versions of applications will need to be deployed. All these steps will take time-in many cases multiple years."

Hain said that recent consumption rates of IPv4 will not be sustainable from the central pool beyond this decade, so organizations would be wise to start the process of deploying IPv6 now. Those who delay may find that the IANA pool for IPv4 has run dry before they have completed their move to IPv6.

"Although that may not be a problem for most, organizations that need to acquire additional IPv4 space to continue growing during the transition could be out of luck," he said.