[arin-ppml] general vendor comment

[David Farmer]

IPv6 has been a desired feature (gives you a better score) in 
all our RFPs for about 5 years now, and the weight for IPv6 
has been going up and up over the years.  A good road map 
counted to, but actual support counted more.  By the way 
most, but not all, network gear we have purchased over the 
past 5 years can support IPv6, at least by now after software 
upgrades delivered from those road maps.

I expect all future RFPs for network gear will have IPv6 as a 
required feature.  If you don't have it, we don't buy, no matter 
how good your product is otherwise.   

While this isn't really a ARIN policy issue, it is a really good 
policy for all of us to implement locally.  I'll bet, ARIN probably 
subscribes to this policy internally for its purchases too.

On 7 May 2009 Kevin Kargel wrote:

> 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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David Farmer                                      Email:farmer at umn.edu
Office of Information Technology
Networking & Telecomunication Services
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