The company, which first deployed IPv6 on its global backbone in 2001 and became the first network in the world to connect to 1,000 IPv6 networks in 2010, has continued its leadership role in next-generation internet protocol (IP).
“We've been aggressively growing our next generation IPv6 network, which has created tremendous growth in the number of networks we connect to,” said Mike Leber, president of Hurricane Electric.
“This increase will provide more direct paths to more destinations, lower latency, and improve throughput for the networks and internet companies we serve, resulting in a better internet experience for their customers. We started building an IPv6 backbone long ago to be better prepared to best serve our customers so they can continue their growth unimpeded as the Internet gradually transitions to this new protocol.”
IPv6 is the next generation IP designed to replace the legacy IPv4 protocol due to IPv4's lack of addresses to support the long-term growth of the internet, increasing number of smart phones and proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT). To enable this, IPv6 addresses have 128 bits while IPv4 addresses only have 32 bits.
In related news, on 14 March 2016, Hurricane Electric connected to 5,000 IPv4 networks, establishing itself as the most connected IPv4 network in addition to its position as the most connected IPv6 network. The company is currently connected to more than 6,400 IPv4 networks; a figure that will continue to grow in the future.
2017 has seen Hurricane Electric further expand its global IP backbone by deploying points of presence (PoPs) in Croatia and Milan. At Capacity Middle East in March, Hurricane Electric announced it was expanding in Dubai, Djibouti, and Nairobi to provide additional redundancy and reliability for greater internet connectivity in the Middle East and Africa.
During the remainder of 2017, Hurricane Electric will continue to make additional investments to its network in strategic locations across the globe.
