The Obama administration released guidelines and milestones today for the transition of government networks to the next generation of Internet Protocols.

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra issued a memo giving agencies deadlines for implementing IPv6 in public-facing systems and internal networks. Kundra said successful implementation of the protocols will require “relentless follow-up” and that transition managers will be held accountable for their agencies' progress.

The guidance was announced at a workshop hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington at which the administration kicked off an effort to spur adoption of IPv6 within the private sector as well as government.

IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocols, the set of rules that defines how devices communicate over packet-switched networks such as the Internet. The new version of the protocols is being adopted in anticipation of the depletion of IPv4 address space, which is expected to occur in the next two years or less. But the transition has been slow, and the actual use of IPv6 remains almost nonexistent. A lack of customer demand and technical expertise is hindering the deployment of the new protocols in production networks.