Christmas came early for Cybera, as we recently received the #1 item on our wish list: more IPv4 addresses!
We had been “getting by” for years on our allocation of 2,000 IPv4 addresses, but as the popularity of our Rapid Access Cloud continued to grow, our stock of addresses became depleted (an individual IPv4 address is required for each cloud instance). Unfortunately, this timed with an international shortage of IPv4 addresses (an issue we’ve covered for several years now, and why we continually urge more organizations to become IPv6-enabled). There is now a competitive market for IPv4 addresses, with an average block of 255 addresses costing $6,144 USD.
It was difficult for Cybera to justify those prices to acquire more IP resources. So unfortunately, this has meant limiting access to the Rapid Access Cloud in some cases (we had to turn down one university class that wanted to use the cloud, and we deployed a sub-optimal time-sharing solution for another class). With our IPv4 stock dwindling, we were facing a gloomy proposition of hitting max capacity on the Rapid Access Cloud within a year. This also meant we would have had to limit opportunities for additional schools and communities to connect to the Research and Education Network and the services offered through it (including the Virtual Firewall Service).
Thankfully, Wolf Creek School Division answered our request for help, and worked with ARIN to officialise the transfer of 1,280 of their IPv4 addresses to Cybera. These should last us for a couple of years at least, and will allow us to continue opening up cloud and networking services to new members and new innovations.
This is a great example of not-for-profit organizations rallying together to support each others’ missions. Wolf Creek’s offering will benefit hundreds, if not thousands, of Albertans as they continue to grow, learn and innovate online.
To them, and to all our stakeholders in the research and innovation space in Alberta, may your holidays be happy and stress-free. And may all your wishes be granted as generously as ours have been!