Learn about IPAM with our free webinar series!

As we have done several times over the years, we are planning another webinar series offering educational material regarding IPAM technologies including IPv6, DNSSEC and IDNA. The full webinar lineup, dates and times, and brief synopses are posted on the BT Diamond IP website. Register for any number of topics you're interested in.

When planning such a series, we certainly have no shortage of topic ideas. IPv6 as always remains of high interest from the Internet community at large. We ran an intensive 5-webinar IPv6 series about a year ago, and these webinars are still relevant and posted for playback on the BT Diamond IP website. So this time around, I selected three different IPv6 webinar topics. 

The first seeks to relate IPv6 to "managers," which yes as the title unfortunately implies, is somewhat "dumbed down" technically in terms of describing IPv6, but it also includes topics related to how IPv6 can impact one's business. I'll discuss the potential benefits of deploying IPv6 from potential cost savings and revenue upsides, to "softer" benefits as well. On the cost side of the equation, I'll discuss major cost areas to consider, though it is really up to each organization to define the scope and extent of their IPv6 deployment, so costs will be implementation-dependent.

Our second webinar will cover the IPv6 deployment process in general. This webinar will nearly coincide with the launch of our new IPv6 Deployment and Management book, which itself covers the topics to be discussed in this webinar. So think of this one as the "audio cliff notes" version of the book! Our third webinar will discuss IPv6 address planning in more depth. IP address planning is what we do and many of our customers have asked us for help in defining such a plan for IPv6. This webinar will provide guidelines and discuss trade-offs for various approaches.

The second half of our series shifts gears to other germane IPAM technologies, starting off with an "Introduction to IPAM" webinar. We at BT Diamond IP have been in the IPAM industry for nearly twenty years and we arguably founded the very IPAM industry itself. So we know a thing or two about IPAM; but the term IPAM has unfortunately been muddied over the last few years to camouflage the IPAM shortcomings of some highly visible DDI vendors. So this webinar seeks to set the record straight on what IPAM truly comprises. 

Our final two webinars address a pair of increasingly important DNS technologies, DNSSEC and IDNA. DNSSEC, like IPv6 has been around for over a decade. And while IPv6 deployments are starting to gain traction, DNSSEC deployment continues to languish. But let's face it, for DNS engineers, the topic of asymmetric key cryptography is a bit intimidating if not orthogonal to the DNS technology they understand inside and out. So we'll discuss the cryptography process at a basic level, discuss what DNSSEC does and doesn't protect, and talk about ongoing administrative duties and potential time savers.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented in "native language" characters, i.e., non-Roman alphabets. DNS specifications dictate that DNS information be communicated "on the wire" as ASCII characters, which represent well the Roman alphabet. To enable broader unicode character sets, the IDN for Applications (IDNA) standards were codified within the IETF. IDNA enables a character string represented as unicode characters to be transformed into a string of ASCII characters, enabling the IDN to be represented in zone files and on the wire in ASCII per DNS specifications. So why is IDNA important? It enables organizations to present themselves to the Internet at large with native-language web addresses, email addresses, and so on. If your target market includes regions of the world that do not use strictly a Roman alphabet, then providing an Internet presence in native language could provide a marketing differentiator; and accessing your Internet presence starts with DNS.

I hope you find these topics of interest and the webinars useful. If you have any suggestions for other IPAM related topics, please feel free to post a comment below.