About 13 years ago I wrote an article to Finnish computer magazine with subject; "The next locomotive of IP networks". There I predicted that IPv6 would be widely deployed within the next three to five years. Little did I know. During the next 10 years, I created several lessons of the basics of IPv6 and also one two-day course about IPv6 networking. Still, IPv6 remained to be a promise of the future.
But last year changed all this. Suddenly articles of the shortage of IPv4 addresses popped up in every magazine and IETF more or less pressed the panic button in their last gathering. All kinds of development efforts have started - some to enhance current IPv6 mechanisms and some to find a way to stay in the current IPv4 world. Despite the latter effects, in my opinion, even though IPv6 still cannot be seen as a mainstream mechanism in large parts of the world, it is inevitable that the day of the Change is nearing us. At least at the moment all signs lead to believe so. This means that YOU need to learn new skills.
The momentum behind IPv6 can be easily seen from the complete workout of CCIE R&S program. In the previous version, IPv6 was just a written topic and it's weigth was relatively low. Now it is own topic in both written and lab test and it's weight is the same (more or less, how can one know?) as e.g. all L2 issues. This means that in order to gain CCIE R&S 4.0, you have to be prominent in IPv6 as well along with all the other topics.
When the need for IPv6 skills arises, the same happens also for the need of IPv6 training. If you think that "it is just another network layer mechanism", you are mostly wrong. It IS another network layer mechanism, but whilst it has many mechanisms similar to IPv4 and other legacy network-layer protocols, all things are renamed and some are also redone. Some of the new acronyms that you have to learn include MLDv2, EUI-64, OSPFv3, 6to4, ISATAP, 6PE and MIPv6. For a person that already knows IPv4 and related mechanisms well, learning these new does not pose a significant challange on comprehension, but it still takes some time. For a person that knows nothing about IPv4, the road is going to be a difficult one, if both protocols need to be learned.
To give you an example of how much training is needed for an IPv4 professional, I will give you a quick overview of the courses that we will begin to offer next autumn. These include:
In addition to these, when time is right (i.e. there is enough customer base), we will redo existing courses to have topics like "IPv6 Multicasting", "OSPFv3 implementation" and "IPv6 in MPLS networks". But one has to start from somewhere - even the studies of IPv6.
The biggest problem with IPv6 teaching will be the lack of suitable trainers and training organisations. The current training market is fairly low since training is usually the one that is under cuts in times of economical downsizing. This means that at least some of the most capable trainers have decided to go for a "real" job. When the boom with IPv6 begins, I'm afraid that there will not be enough people to teach all the courses that are needed. Two things can help on this. The first is to use the modern network-based learning tools and courses that are offered by many companies. The other is to start preparing and training for IPv6 now.
Have a nice summer,
Aki Anttila
Chief Technology Officer
Mamentor Oy
www.mamentor.fi/en
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