Since IPv6 is going to replace IPv4, should I develop my new application to support it?

Question

I develop applications using many languages and a few platforms. From what I am reading, IPv6 is going to be mainstream within then next 5–10 years, and that some ISPs even offe

Answer 1

Your framework should support both if possible, but if you have a choice of one, I would go with IPv4, but make sure that you can add/transition to IPv6. But this would also depend upon who is the end user of the product and what are the requirements for your project. Is this going to user which are using/will use IPv6 or are you going for acceptence into an existing base which mainly uses IPv4.

Based on my experience, the project I am currently working considered going to IPv6 as there was a mandate to be able to support IPv6. For the most part what we found out is that the hardware vendors (switch, routers, computers) and WAN vendors were able to support switching to IPv6. There would be some work in integrating existing IPv4 hardware, but it could be done. Based on cost, it would be about the same, at least hardware wise.

However, some software products we are using are not and may not move to support IPv6, while others seem to be more adminable to supporting it. Based on that, we are upgrading to new versions of the software, but will probably remain IPv4 for the monent, or at least until the software catches up in terms of support of IPv6.