We’re getting tired of saying it, and you’re probably tired of hearing it, but it’s true: The world is rapidly running out of unassigned IPv4 addresses.
Sometime soon, perhaps within the next week or two, the last available IPv4 addresses in North America will be exhausted. There are only 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses worldwide, and unassigned addresses have already been exhausted in much of Europe and Asia.
[UPDATE: On July 1, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which manages distribution of IPv4 addresses for North America, activated its “Unmet Request Policy” – effectively marking the end of freely available IPv4 addresses in the region.]
The continuing cascade of IPv4 exhaustion inspired us to create Exhausted Guy, a network administrator who just can’t stay awake as he contemplates Exhaustion Day and the challenge of finding the IP addresses he needs to get his job done.
Follow Infoblox on Twitter (@Infoblox) to see where #ExhaustedGuy stumbles next, and visit the Infoblox IPv6 Readiness page, after you’ve had a good night’s sleep, to learn more about the cure for IPv4 exhaustion: The almost limitless new world of IPv6.
Network administrators and network architects eager to get started with the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 can check out our free new Infoblox 6Map tool (www.infoblox.com/6map), which we described in a blog post yesterday.