Apocalypse Now: Internet To Run Out Of IP Addresses In Less Than A Year

Is this for real? Apparently it is.

As reported in this apocalyptic piece by Richard MacManus on ReadWriteWeb.com, the Internet will run out of distinct Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in less than one year. The pressing concerns were first disclosed by John Curran, president and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and then echoed by Vint Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist, and regarded as one of the Internet's original architects.

The reason? Check this out:

There's an explosion of data about to happen to the Web - thanks largely to sensor data, smart grids, RFID and other Internet of Things data. Other reasons include the increase in mobile devices connecting to the Internet and the annual growth in user-generated content on the Web.

The solution is to move to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the next generation Internet Protocol standard which uses a 128-bit address. IPv6 supports a vastly larger number of unique addresses, enough to give every person on the planet over 4 billion addresses.

ARIN, the non-profit responsible for managing the distribution of Internet addresses in the North American region, explained that of the approximately 4 billion IPv4 addresses available, all but 6% have already been allocated. Curran expects the final 6% to be allocated over the coming year.

So what does this mean for all us? If you haven't grabbed your piece of online real estate, you better do it now, particularly since it is in unclear when the move to IPv6 will be made. This is especially critical for companies which engage in different online marketing activities, ranging from simple Web site development to mobile marketing.