This was the first occasion where we saw below 100 transfer requests per month since the inception of the IP transfer market in 2014.  The volatility continues to show a decreasing trend over the past 3 months as the transfers have yet to surpass the 100 mark.

In the recent months from June to July, the total transfer requests have decreased by -7.5%.  The more significant decrease is a -20% drop in IP transfer requests in July as compared to the rest of the 2021 calendar year.   So how does this translate to the pricing for IP addresses in today’s market?

Prices started out at around $8 per IP back in 2015, when total transfer requests were well below 100 per month.  Ever since we have seen a 20 – 30% increase in pricing every year without fail. 

Covid caused a significant price increase of over double the normal yearly increases, due to limited supply and massively increased demand.  Today prices range between $38 – $45 per IP address in all respective markets.   

So, what does the recent decrease in IPv4 transfer requests mean?  Are we looking at a possible correction in pricing, or will we push through the $50 price point?  

It will be interesting to see what happens because there are other factors at play today that did not exist over the past 5 years.  The introduction of COVID causes many suppliers to slow down re-addressing efforts and redirect priorities to contingency plans. 

While this was occurring, the demand from ISPs and hosting providers alike soared as many people adapted to work from home environments.

If organizations are still slow to add IPs into the market, the lowered demand might just fill at a normal pace, keeping prices stable.  However, if we see a floor of IPs hit the market, we can certainly assume that prices may drop and/or stay stable at or around the $40 per IP price point. One thing is certain.  The laws of supply and demand will always dictate pricing. 

The fact is, there are no more Ipv4 addresses made.  Therefore, the limited amount that is available will always be a desired commodity among the internet community.   Even with the rollout of IPv6, there will always be a need for dual-stack networks.  And at this pace, IPv6 will not play a prominent role for another 5 – 10 years, if at all…

The post The Current State of the IPv4 Market appeared first on Colocation America.

Setting up Your ARIN Account

Credit: Business Wire

The first step is setting up an account with ARIN. After registering, you’ll be required to designate a Point of Contact and apply for an Org-ID. Each Org-ID is unique to a specific organization, and multiple Org-IDs can be listed under the same ARIN account. Before issuing your Org-ID, ARIN may ask that you provide a certificate of good standing to verify that your organization is legitimate and in business. This step can take 1-2 weeks.

Obtaining Pre-Approval

Next, you’ll need to apply for pre-approval, a decision made by ARIN that your company does, in fact, have a need for the additional IPv4 space you intend to buy. It’s an essential step that comes relatively early in the transfer timeline and is necessary to prevent hoarding of address space. To get pre-approved, you’ll need to submit a detailed business use case to ARIN that demonstrates at least one of the following:

1. Your organization will use at least 50% of the requested IPv4 space within two years, or 

1. Your organization is already using at least 75% of its current total IPv4 address space.

After you’ve satisfied ARIN with your projected IPv4 use, a company executive will need to sign an Officer Attestation letter testifying to the contents of your report. After that form is submitted, you’ll receive your pre-approval within 48 hours.

 The entire pre-approval process can take anywhere up to two weeks, depending on whether or not ARIN has to follow-up for more information. Many organizations find it helpful to utilize IP address management software to effectively demonstrate their need for IPv4 address space, allowing ARIN to provide pre-approval as quickly as possible. Once received, your pre-approval is valid for one year.

Block Review and Purchase Agreement

Credit: Kinsta

Now that you’re an approved buyer, the IPv4 transfer and acquisition market awaits you. It’s time to review your requested block and make sure it’s clean. An experienced consultant will be able to review your range and provide a detailed report listing all addresses it contains, as well as information about which, if any, of the included IPv4 addresses have ever been listed on one of 100 global blacklisting websites. 

The next step is the ARIN purchase agreement. Before receiving and signing it, you must provide the following: 

1. Your legal entity name (as registered with ARIN) 

1. Your ARIN Org-ID 

1. Your ARIN Pre-Approval ticket number 

1. Contact information for someone authorized to sign the agreement on behalf of your entity

After both parties sign the agreement and the buyer submits payment, the transfer process can officially begin.

Transfer and Final Processing

The seller then submits an ARIN IPv4 transfer ticket, which includes several important pieces of information, including the buyer’s Org-ID and the number of the IPv4 address block being transferred. The buyer is also required to submit an ARIN transfer ticket including the seller’s name and the address block being transferred. 

Unless the block in question was assigned before ARIN was formally established in 1998, the seller must pay ARIN a transfer fee of $300.

After the transfer tickets are submitted and the fees are paid, it’s ARIN’s turn. ARIN’s process of reviewing the transfer takes between 5 and 10 days. During this time, the seller should sign, notarize, and submit an Officer Acknowledgment Form to ARIN via their online transfer portal. 

If you’re a first-time buyer, you’ll have to pay a one-time fee and sign a registered services agreement.

Once Whois, a database with exhaustive information on who owns which IPv4 addresses, reflects the new owner’s name, the seller receives payment and both parties are able to move forward with their next initiatives, having both benefitted greatly from the transfer.

The post ARIN IPv4 Transfer Process appeared first on Colocation America.

Everybody is talking about Big Data these days and how it has revolutionized the way we do business. It empowers business owners to make decisions based on actual numbers and trends, rather than using playing guessing games.  However, with big data comes big responsibility.

The Bandwidth Problem of Big Data

Big data has also taken a toll on the bandwidth providers, as the requirements to communicate colossal amounts of data each day are quickly growing. For each data center that is moving into Big Data, the question is, are they equipped to handle the increased demand of Bandwidth? It is prudent to ask this question, because companies that are really moving to Big Data are certainly moving to big bandwidth.

In its continued efforts to utilize Big Data, Google announced that they will soon have 10 gigabits of bandwidth for each Fibre service customer. According to industry standard, that is quite large and of course fast.  This speaks to Google’s success today and continued efforts to stay far ahead of the competition.

Google is really pushing the direction of internet use and big data access. The 10 gigabit service is a big deal, but it does not end there. With this move, Google is encouraging, or more like challenging, ISPs and bandwidth providers to keep up. The speed is there, now it is up to the ISP and backbone providers to provide quality service, meaning faster connectivity, or else be left behind. We will certainly not be surprised when things start to turn around once Google completed its 10 gigabits plan.

Target is another great example of a company using big data to drive business.  They successfully launched and managed a data strategy which allows them to predict consumers shopping habits based on behavioral patterns from previous purchase history.  Consumers, whether they know it or not, are offering up increasing amounts of data which providers Target and other large retailers greater level of detail for further analysis.  This does however increase the cost of running these programs, as it requires more resources to manage.

There is, of course, always a caveat with these types on improvements in technology.   While many companies may want to implement big data strategies, they simply can’t afford it. The cost of bandwidth usage, management, and infrastructure make it unattainable for many organizations as they begin to explore the options.  Many of them talk about it as if it is an elusive dream, at least for now, and they are right.

It is good that bandwidth usage continues to become more affordable over time.  The increase in usage is sure to affects the bottom line, which keeps business owners up at night.  Many experts predict that in just the next few years, bandwidth availability will increase by 50% leveling out the cost of IP transit and Transport. While that that may very well not be enough for many; but it is considered extreme hyper growth over such a short period of time. With a significant increase in the availability, comes a big change for end user experience. Online gaming, video streaming, and other rich media formats could soon have virtually zero lag even when there are millions of users are engaged at the same time.

In a few years, Big Data will quite possibly be considered standard. The growth of data usage is inevitable; it’s a matter of when.   And as this starts to become more of a standard in most companies, bandwidth requirements will continue to soar. The question now is, can ISP’s & backbone providers keep up.

The post Big Data and Big Bandwidth: A Match Made in ‘Big’ Heaven appeared first on Colocation America.