[arin-ppml] general vendor comment

[George, Wes E [NTK]]

I will say this... (echoing the apologies if this isn't the appropriate forum)

It needs to go beyond just asking if there's a roadmap or a plan to support IPv6. While there are vendors that don't have one yet, there are plenty that do.
IPv6 has been an RFP checkbox for a long time now, so lots of companies have a "story to tell" when asked. It mostly translates to "eventually..."

At this point, it has to ratchet up a bit to underscore the urgency. The hope is that people are starting to get a feel for how long it will be before they have the ability/need to roll out IPv6 in their production environment. That timeline needs to be communicated to your vendors, with the expectation that if they aren't working to meet your required timeline, future contract renewals and new business would be in jeopardy. You want to keep complaining that your upstream doesn't support IPv6? This is a way to fix it.

Thanks,
Wes George

-----Original Message-----
From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On Behalf Of Kevin Kargel
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 1:59 PM
To: arin ppml
Subject: [arin-ppml] general vendor comment

First I apologize to the list in advance if this is not an appropriate place
for this comment.

I am making a point of ending any conversation with a vendor with the
question "What is your roadmap for IPv6.  Future purchase and renewal
decisions will be affected.".  Almost invariably the answer is "Gee, you are
the first person that has asked.  We don't have a roadmap.  I will forward
this on to our development team and when there is a need I am sure we will
pursue it."

I would suggest to everyone that we all start requesting IPv6 information
from our vendors, and submit feature requests when appropriate.  Hardware
and software vendors are not going to spend money to address this issue
until they see a widespread business case to do so.

Kevin


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