I’ve talked to a lot of people about DirectAccess. After just five minutes of going over the features and capabilities that DirectAccess brings to bear, you can see the listener’s eyes light up and they get really excited about the potential benefits. They get the feeling that Microsoft really understands what they need and they’ve finally done something about it.

However, when you then move into a discussion of IPv6 – you can see the light fade from their eyes, their brows furrow, and an expression of disappointment take over the listener’s visage. You almost get a sense that they’ve been betrayed – that you’ve taken candy away from a baby, or even worse. You can almost hear them thing “why did you build up this sense of excitement and hope, only to kick it down by bringing up the unholy, complex subject of IPv6?”

Indeed, the complexities of IPv6 have lead many companies to reconsider their plans of deploying an IPv6 infrastructure. Check out:

http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/ipv6mess.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/infrastructure...501014

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2...28.DTL

While I think the transition to IPv6 is inevitable – it’s going to be slower than what was predicted. To a major extent, this is related to the costs of training an entire generation of IPv4 networkers, but also related to refreshing equipment and applications that actually work with IPv6. Right now, the benefits of IPv6 just don’t make up for the up front costs.

Regardless, UAG does help you with this problem. You don’t necessarily have to be an IPv6 guru to get started. Since UAG uses IPv6 transition technologies to help you get started, you only need a minimum understanding to deploy UAG to support a DirectAccess solution.

Ben Bernstein from the UAG team has put together a nice introductory tutorial to get you started on the basics of IPv6. Check it out at:

http://blogs.technet.com/edgeaccessblog/archive/20...s.aspx

HTH,

Tom

Thomas W Shinder, M.D., MCSE
Sr. Consultant / Technical Writer

Prowess Consulting www.prowessconsulting.com
PROWESS CONSULTING | Microsoft Forefront Security Specialist
Email: tshinder@isaserver.org
MVP — Forefront Edge Security (ISA/TMG/IAG)