IPv6
Here's a
snapshot report that tells us how we're doing with IPv4
numbers. It says we'll run out in 2012 or so.
That's not very far away.
In 2005, the US Office of
Management and Budget said
[warning, pdf] that businesses should plan to move to IPv6-enabled
hardware and software. But for people who aren't selling to
the government, the economic incentive to move to IPv6 isn't
great. (The people who are selling to the government have to move
along.)
Because the internet is really all about communication, and because people are going to be using those IPv4 numbers for a verrry looonnng timmmme, everyone's going to need a strategy for communicating with both IPv4 and IPv6. It's certainly worth discussing the various proposals floating around about how to deal with the exhaustion of IPv4 numbers (here's one).
From the little I know (and that's very little), it looks as if (1) the “solution” here will be varied, (2) China and DoD will get there first, and (3) it will take a long time to move (if we ever do) to an IPv6 internet.