That's a good point. At some point, the CEO will say "Make it happen! Now!" and you'd better have a plan.

You're right, I was going for a joke. What you're showing me is I'm doing a bad job of explaining the benefits of IPv6 and probably need to do more reading.

In my defense, there are probably more "gotchas" to this than you may be giving credit for. Doing "IPv6 to IPv4" translation is, as you say, easy. I don't consider that to be "using" IPv4, though. What I have read has given me some pause - firewall rules need updating, some security concerns need addressing, etc.

I'm not a network guy, just a UNIX sysadmin, so my comments should be taken with a grain of salt the size of my igorance.

Like drunk driving. I don't know about where y'all are, but driving drunk is a step above child molestation where I am.

It's just right now, lots of people are doing it, so there's a safety in a herd.

Yes, accept that the same rules (no problems if income is large, if political power is great) that apply to DD apply to "driving-while-texting,"

Me: "Hello, big boss! I'd like to go to IPv6 soon!"

BB: "What will that take?"

Me: "Oh, probably a couple of months worth of completely dedicated work from your best network folks. If you don't exclusively task them, could take a year."

BB: "Sounds complex. Is it risky?"

Me: "Absolutely! We could totally drop off the internet or lose internal connectivity for quite a while if we mess it up."

BB: "What, exactly, am I getting from this expensive and risky thing?"

Me: "More or less what you have now. The features it does you don't really care about."

BB: "So it's expensive and risky and I get nothing out of it."

Me: "Yep! When can I start?"

*doorslam*

Should it? Possibly.

Will it? No. It's amazing how well people play along if the alternative is no paycheck at all.

You can have:

* Company data that is not world readable
* Low cost (time and money) support.
* Users bringing in their own devices that are not editable by the company.

Attempts to have "all three" mean that the cost was underestimated.

Until it breaks. Then the IT guy/gal needs to stay late and help fix the problem. Sometimes (and here's where the IT worker hits the alcohol)... get this... they suggested not to do it in the first place. After a couple times of this happening, IT workers get bitter and angry and don't want anything new on the network.

You'd be amazed what "I'd like to use device X on the network. Here's a couple devices for you, paid for by our department. Would it be possible for you to take a look at them for a couple months and let us know what'd be safe?" will get you.

(Probably not the sort of ignorance you're thinking of, though.)

Start practicing saying "I don't know." You know a lot of technology right now, but in 5 years you'll know less, and in 10 the young kids will roll their eyes when you talk about how it "used to be." Set a big organizational goal ("double our storage space for next year") and then ask the technicians how to make it happen. Resist the urge to do anything more than "suggest" things or vaguely hint at solutions. Know how little you know.

What you shouldn't ever forget is how technology "really works." You know, "fast right cheap pick 2." If your company wants to go with a cheap solution to their problems, make sure you've prepared properly for it.

All the successful technician-to-manager folks I've worked under have suggested solutions, listened when technicians explained problems and tried to get managerial roadblocks out of their way. On the plus side, the best managers I've worked for were promoted techies. Good luck!