4 posts tagged with "IPv6"

There's a draft Internet-Draft floating around called "IPv8" by Jamie Thain. It was published in April 2026 and reads like a list of every networking buzzword bingo square you can imagine, stapled together with a straight face. I read it twice to make sure I wasn't missing the joke. I don't think I was. So either it's an April Fool that ran a couple of weeks late, or somebody is genuinely proposing it. Either way, it deserves a careful kicking.

Let me walk through why.

We've taken a look at 168.63.129.16, the magic IP address in Azure, and now it's time to explore 169.254.169.254, the instance metadata IP address. This IP address is used by Azure virtual machines to access instance metadata, which provides information about the VM and its environment.

Make it make sense​

I will always be a network engineer, and that means some words have very specific meanings that have taken root in my soul. The terminology within ExpressRoute has bothered me for ages, and when speaking to a few people, I found that I'm not the only one who finds it unintuitive. To me, a circuit is a single link, but to Microsoft, a circuit is the pair of links and the associated peerings! Two thumbs up to that, Microsoft, or rather in your own language 'one ExpressRoute thumb'.

A Matter of Western Digital Privilege​

In a recent conversation about IPv6 adoption at a Western technology company, I witnessed a familiar scene play out. Engineers and architects discussed IPv6 implementation as an optional future consideration rather than an immediate necessity. 'We don't really need it yet', was the prevailing sentiment. This perspective, common among Western organisations, reveals a profound blindspot born of privilege – one that unconsciously perpetuates digital inequality on a global scale.