Earlier this week,, Netlify announced in a blog post that the company has begun the rollout of IPv6 support on the Netlify Application Delivery Network. Netlify has adopted the IPv6 support as a solution to the IPv4 address capacity problem. This news comes right after the announcement that Netlify raised $30 million for a new ‘Application Delivery Network’, aiming to replace servers and infrastructure management.
Netlify provides developers with an all-in-one workflow to build, deploy, and manage modern web projects. Their ‘Application Delivery Network’ is a new platform for the web and will assist web developers in building newer web-based applications. There is no need for developers to setup or manage servers as all content and applications will be created directly on a global network. It removes the dependency on origin infrastructure, allowing companies to host the entire application globally using APIs and microservices.
IP addresses are assigned to every server connected to the internet. Netifly explain how traditionally used IPv4 address pool is getting smaller with continuous expansion of the internet. This is where IPv6 steps in. IPv6 defines an IP address as a 128-bit entity instead of integer-based IPv4 addresses. For example, IPv4 defines an address as 167.99.129.42, and IPv6 address would instead look like 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
Even though the IPv6 format is complex to remember, it creates vastly more possible addresses to help support the rapid growth of the internet. In addition to efficient routing and packet processing, IPv6 also accounts for better security as compared to IPv4. This is because IPSec, which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity, is baked into IPv6.
According to the blog post, users that are serving their sites on a subdomain of netlify.com or using custom domains registered from an external domain registrar, will automatically begin using IPv6 on their ADN. Customers using Netlify for DNS management, can go to the Domains section on the dashboard and enable IPv6 for each of their domains. Customers having a complex or bespoke DNS configuration or enterprise customers using Netlify’s Enterprise ADN infrastructure, are advised to contact Netlify’s support team or their account manager to ensure that their specific configuration is migrated to IPv6 appropriately.
Netlify’s users have received this news well:
I moved my blog to @Netlify after @calavera gave me a sneak peak. I've been a huge fan of Netlify and #IPV6 support means faster and more reliable connections! https://t.co/MozJVSLYI8
— Seth Vargo (@sethvargo) November 26, 2018
Hacker News is also flooded with positive comments for Netlify:
Netlify has starting off on the right foot, it would be interesting to see what customers think after implementing the IPv6 for their Netlify ADN. Head over to Netlify’s blog for more insights on this news.
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