Command Information, a fast-growing consultancy which assists agencies and organizations with the transition to IPv6, today announced the appointment of Stephen Oronte as senior director for network centric solutions.

Oronte joins CI from Canada-based Hexago Inc, one of the earliest IPv6 hardware providers. As chief executive officer of Hexago, he worked with organizations including NTT, KDDI, AT&T (News - Alert), DISA and General Dynamics to prepare for the IPv6 transition.

“Stephen’s experience and expertise in working with IPv6 in its nascent stages makes him a natural addition to our team and provides an added bonus to Command’s clients, allowing them to learn from some of the earliest global IPv6 adoptions,” said Tom Patterson, chief executive officer of Command Information, in a press release.

IPv6 is the next generation protocol which will create almost limitless IP addresses for the Internet. It succeeds the current protocol, IPv4, and is already in use on other parts of the world, including China. IPv6 holds great promise for the telecommunications industry as it will facilitate further advancements in IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert)), as well as solving a variety of potential congestion - and security-related problems on IP networks (some have even touted it as a remedy to the whole “net neutrality” dilemma).

“In the next five years we can expect to see billions of network-connected devices, including cell phones, RFID tags and sensors,” Patterson explained. “Making these devices function easily and to their fullest capabilities is faster, cheaper and easier to control in an IPv6 environment.”

“Command Information’s footprint as the largest pure-play IPv6 solutions provider in this country makes us distinctly situated to help large organizations with the transition and deployment of advanced network centric solutions,” Oronte said in the press release. “IPv6 is the largest network infrastructure change since the origins of the Internet and I'm excited to bring my experience to the team at Command.”

In related news, the Federal IPv6 Summit got underway today (May 17) in Reston, Va. The event will feature senior political and military leaders, IT organization executives, ISPs and first responders who will impart their visions of how the government will benefit from IPv6, how the transition will take place, and what roles industry should pursue.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has mandated the adoption of IPv6 for every federal agency by 2008, and this is what will be discussed in detail during the conference. The event will also feature demonstrations of new IPv6 applications, as well as up-to-the- minute reports on the first IPv6/WLAN city in America.

Command Information made news in April when it released Part II of a whitepaper explaining the benefits and logistical challenges of business migration to IPv6.

The 11 page whitepaper, “An Analysis of the Business & Financial IPv6 Marketplace,” written by Patterson, looks at the financial and regulatory issues surrounding the upcoming transition, while at the same time building a solid business case for IPv6. It includes sections focusing on cost savings benefits for businesses and also touches on the potential for the development of new technologies afforded through the next IP addressing system.

Much of the whitepaper refers to a recent independent study from the U.S. Department of Commerce, done in conjunction with the research group RTI International, focusing on global IPv6 developments thus far. The DOC report examines the issues surrounding business transition to IPv6 and also looks at the potential financial costs. It also looks at some U.S. companies which have already migrated to the new protocol and how they are leveraging it.

The DOC report shows that the transition to IPv6 has the potential to become a viable, profitable market. Among key findings in the DOC report are that the transition to IPv6 will cost American businesses approximately $1 billion per year over the next 25 years, and that for each dollar invested in IPv6, only about 8 cents is for actual infrastructure upgrades, while the remaining 92 cents will be invested in taking advantage of it. The DOC report also shows that the IPv6 market could generate up to $10 billion in costs savings for businesses annually, and that every dollar invested will yield a return of about $10. Driving the cost savings, according to the DOC report, are improved security, increased efficiency, enhancement of existing applications, and the creation of “Net-new” applications.

Part I of the whitepaper, “America’s Quest for IPv6” (both parts written by Patterson), demonstrated the business case for the U.S. to embrace IPv6 - and also reviewed the mergence of IPv6 in countries including China, Japan, Korea, Sweden and France.

Command Information’s Application Development practice is led by Digital Focus, a leader in agile software development and integration services.

For more on Command Information, visit www.commandinformation.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.