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Seems we’re sitting atop an Internet bomb. Count 1,272 days from now, and the world is going to run out of Internet addresses, according to IANS. 

Over 85 percent of available addresses are already allocated with the rest to run out by 2011; predicts the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We’re not talking addresses that you randomly type into your respective browser/s, rather numerical Internet Protocol (IP) addresses basic to what we call the Internet.

The bone of contention: the current IP system (IPv4), originally introduced in 1981 with space for just four-billion addresses, is ill-equipped to support the burgeoning Internet. Since its inception the addresses provided for have been all but gobbled up. But the Internet continues to grow in leaps and bounds and so do the addresses ; the irony being there’s no room for all of it.

The perceived digital doomsday is somewhat like global warming; you can’t see it happening but it affects you alright. With the Internet running out of addresses, speeds will drop, newer services will become dearer - worse still, unavailable.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (the international community in charge of smooth operation and evolution of the Internet) claims it is prepared for the onslaught — with the successor of IPv4 named IPv6. Hell, we’ve been hearing about this one for more than a decade now! Which brings us back to where we started: what happens after 1,272 days.  

IPv6 has to be the Solution and the time has really come to put it forward.