Global IPv6 deployment just passed a major milestone over the past few days when Google’s IPv6 adoption statistics showed over 10% of users connecting to Google’s sites coming in over IPv6. Considering that only two years ago I wrote here on CircleID about IPv6 passing the 3% adoption mark, this is a great amount of growth to see!

If you look on the “per-country” tab of Google’s stats you will see that in some countries deployment is much higher. For example, around 25% in the USA, Portugal and Germany, 31% in Switzerland and 44% in Belgium.

Now, Google’s measurements are only one of many different IPv6 measurement efforts, but the others show similar growth trends as well. For example, the World IPv6 Launch measurements site shows deployment statistics across different networks with some networks such as Verizon Wireless now at 71% and AT&T at 52%.

IPv6 Adoption – Based on continuously measuring the availability of IPv6 connectivity among Google users. The graph shows the percentage of users that access Google over IPv6. (Source: Google)

The point is that IPv6 deployment IS happening! And if you haven’t started looking at your plan for IPv6 connectivity you need to move on that now.

This is important because as my Internet Society colleague Phil Roberts wrote today:

IPv6 deployment is important for the future of the Internet. IPv6 is the protocol that gives us truly global addressing for every device that attaches to the Internet. In addition to all the screens that we use in all aspects of our lives every day now, we anticipate an explosion of other smart devices attaching to the Internet in the coming years. The Internet Society’s recent paper on the Internet of Things just begins to scratch the surface on the IP addressing needs, but it’s an area we expect to have a big impact on IPv6 deployment.

Of course, as Kevin Meynell wrote, this still means there is 90% to go… but still, this is a big step today!
Iljitsch van Beijnum also had a great post today on Ars Technica celebrating this milestone and also noting that IPv6 standards began 20 years ago this month with the publication of RFC 1883.
It’s great to see the 10% milestone being passed… and I look forward to continued acceleration of IPv6 deployment in the months and years ahead. Congrats to everyone who has been involved in some way!

P.S. If you want to get started with IPv6 but don’t know where to being, the Internet Society Deploy360 Programme has some pages to help you!