Cisco Offers Government Agencies IPv6 Training

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) plans to host a free, one-hour webinar to help government agencies meet the Sept. 30, 2012, deadline for compliance with the new IPv6 Internet protocol, according to a company blog post.

Yes, the World IPv6 test launch was more than a year ago and the new Internet protocol officially kicked off on June 6, but the deadline for government agencies to comply with the new standard is fast arriving. Yet, to date, barely 1 percent of federal websites are supporting the IP on their DNS, email and Web services, according to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) data. IPv6’s chief benefit is the address strings are some four times longer than those of IPv4, offering gazillions of possible addresses.

“We at Cisco understand the urgency and difficulty of this change, therefore have partnered with the Digital Government Institute to host a free one-hour webinar on Aug. 30 (2 p.m. ET) that will give attendees the tools, as well as outline five steps, to help your agency move quickly toward compliance as the clock ticks down,” wrote Amy Blanchard, Cisco, Borderless Networks architecture marketing manager for the U.S. Public Sector Field Marketing organization.

Topics covered on the webcast, titled, “5 Steps to Meet the September 30 IPv6 Deadline,” include:

Presenters include Dale Geesey, COO of Auspex Technologies; Steve Pirzchalski, director, Department of Veterans Affairs, Enterprise Network Services; and, David Prall, Cisco consulting systems engineer.

Why should this matter to channel partners? Simply put, there’s opportunity there for networking and security VARs. While adoption of the new protocol is said to be growing at a furious rate, security issues still abound. Moreover, channel partners involved in their customers’ IPv6 upgrades also can engage with their hardware upgrades, conduct assessments on IPv6 readiness, and make sure that the correct security devices, policies and measures are in place.