IPv6 is coming to town
According to the IPv4 counter on Hurricane Electric's web site there are only 408 days of IPv4 address availability left. Businesses and everyone responsible for infrastructure should add "IPv6 migration" to their agendas. We know that IPv6 cannot be simply turned on. You have to make sure that your equipment (hard- and software) can deal with IPv6. So it's best to take one step at a time.
The local office proxy server just got IPv6 support. We upgraded from Squid 2.7 to 3.1. The transition went smoothly. There were only minor changes to the configuration file. Of course you have to add new access lists for IPv6 addresses. Make sure you do not soften up your security policy by mistake. Starting the new proxy won't get you IPv6 connectivity automatically. You still need a native IPv6 link, a tunnel or a Teredo client. We opted for installing miredo in order not to integrate the tunnel broker setup with the existing firewall system (yet another tempting idea to mess up your security measures by accident). Stateful filtering for IPv6 can be done with the Linux® Netfilter, you only need 5 lines of ip6tables. That's about it. You can now access the IPv6 Internet with your IPv4 connection between browser and proxy server.
There is already a lot of information regarding the IPv6 transition. We recommend to do your preparations and tests in time. 2012 may be too late to start - not only for the Mayans.