In accordance with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum 21-07 (M-21-07), dated November 19, 2020, by Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, all new Department of State information systems must be IPv6-enabled at the time of deployment. It is also the strategic intent of the Department of State (Department) to phase out the use of IPv4 for all current Department systems by meeting the milestones laid out by M-21-07.
This policy statement designates the Director, Office of the Chief Architect as the lead of the Department’s IPv6 Integrated Project Team (IPT) to coordinate these actions. The IPT is responsible for developing and overseeing the overall IPv6 transition plan which shall be inclusive of strategies, acquisitions, processes, status, and milestones required of all bureaus and offices. In most circumstances, this will require that newly procured and legacy computing devices and networking equipment be IPv6 capable and that these IPv6 capabilities are enabled during the transition period.
Additionally, all bureaus and offices shall ensure system budgets and other plans detail transition to IPv6 and that these plans align with the agency’s overall IPv6 Implementation Plan. In support of this mandate, key stakeholders will be identified and the IPT will:
- Provide strategies, processes, status, and milestones for inclusion in the agency’s overall IPv6 implementation plan;
- Collaborate with the Office of the Chief Architect to identify opportunities for IPv6 pilots on operational systems and nominate them to the IPT;
- Oversee implementation of the agency’s IPv6 Implementation Plan;
- Work with the Office of the Chief Architect to ensure that processes for approving new systems for operation, or upgrading existing systems, include a review of the system’s IPv6 readiness to ensure consistency with the agency’s overall IPv6 Implementation Plan; and
- Work with the Office of the Chief Architect to ensure processes are in place to ensure all new agency acquisitions are capable of operating in an IPv6-only environment according to the milestones established in the agency’s Implementation Plan.
References: OMB Memorandum M-21-07