World IPv6 Launch Takes Centre-Stage at Amsterdam’s Science Park

Amsterdam, 31 May 2012 – To celebrate a landmark event in the evolution of the Internet, the RIPE NCC and the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) will be among other parties joining the technical community and industry leaders in co-organising the World IPv6 Launch on 6th June with a local event at Science Park Amsterdam. Internet enthusiasts and future Internet leaders will be able to view the World IPv6 Launch as it happens using live statistics available from the RIPE NCC at v6launch.ripe.net. Measurements will begin before the event and continue afterwards.

Taking place all over the globe, World IPv6 Launch will bring together thousands of leading Internet companies and businesses, ranging from Google to Deutsche Telekom, in permanently enabling IPv6 from 6th June. The event will also celebrate the successful collaboration and contributions of the multi-stakeholder community in safeguarding the future growth of the Internet.

Daniel Karrenberg, Chief Scientist at the RIPE NCC and the event's keynote speaker says: “World IPv6 Launch really is a pivotal point in the growth of the Internet. It is no secret that we are getting closer to full allocation of IPv4 address space, and IPv6 is the only way forward to guarantee the Internet can continue to grow and perform how we have all come to expect. It's fantastic to see so many key organisations permanently switching on IPv6.”

Henk Steenman, CTO at AMS-IX, says: "World IPv6 Launch is the long awaited start of large scale IPv6 deployment by major players in the Internet Industry. This could be the moment from where the Internet definitely will move to IPv6 and be freed of the limitations imposed on it by the now scarce IPv4 resources."

The Science Park event, which the University of Amsterdam (UvA) will host, will be one of a series of simultaneous global events happening around the world on the same day. All Internet stakeholders are encouraged to attend the event and there will be an IPv6 challenge taking place during the day. The organising committee of the IPv6 Launch event has set a challenge for people to come up with novel demonstrations of the use of IPv6, with prizes for the winners. Part of the organising committee are UvA, Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), SURFnet, Internet Society (ISOC), RIPE NCC, AMS-IX, IPv6 Task Force, NLnet Labs, NLnet foundation, Stichting IPv6 Nederland and Routz. Please visit http://ipv6launch.nl/ for more information.

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