ACADEMIA

United Devices (UD) said today that it now supports Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) across the company's entire solution suite, including the recently announced Data Center One and Service One solutions. UD said the timing of its announcement is important because the U.S. government has specified that the network backbones of all federal agencies must deploy IPv6 by 2008 and many of its commercial customers globally are building infrastructures based on the updated protocol. The capability is a key requirement for service providers, including telecommunications companies offering infrastructure and application delivery services. This is a key market segment for UD's Service One solution. IPv6 is a suite of standard protocols for the network layer of the Internet. It replaces IPv4, which has been the Internet's underlying protocol for almost 30 years. "IPv6 provides much greater address space, a more efficient routing infrastructure and improved QoS features -- all critical capabilities for our Managed Services clients," said Jikku Venkat, chief technology officer at UD. "We are pleased to be able to announce support for it at such an early date. SLA-based application software and service delivery is an area where we are seeing a lot of growth, and IPv6 is a key differentiating feature in this segment." This and other enhancements in UD's product portfolio continue to reinforce UD's position as the leading technology for virtualizing and managing application infrastructures for internal purposes or as the backbone for a shared services offering. UD also recently added support to its solutions suite for Microsoft Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7. Key UD personnel will be available to discuss and demonstrate the UD solution portfolio at the company's annual conference, this year scheduled for March 7 and 8 in Boston at the Sheraton Hotel near Copley Square. Themed "UD:07 – Virtual Reality," the conference includes industry leaders from SAP, BMC, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, Satyam, and a host of UD's customers and partners.