Microsoft has been forced to start using its global stock of IPv4 addresses to keep its Azure cloud service afloat in the U.S., highlighting the growing importance of making the shift to IP version 6.
Microsoft doesn’t mention IPv6 in the blog post, but the use of the protocol would make its address problems disappear. The newer version of the Internet Protocol adds an almost inexhaustible number of addresses thanks to a 128-bit long address field, compared to the 32 bits used by version 4. Since every connected device on the Internet needs an IP address, there will be increasing pressure to move to IPv6 as more non-computer devices come online in the so-called Internet of things.
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