Command Information - OMB 5-22: Meeting the Mandate

For more than 15 years, Command has focused on furthering the missions of government agencies. Today we continue this effort with our suite of OMB 5-22 compliance offerings that includes all the services you need to satisfy the mandate today and prepare your agency to leverage the benefits of IPv6 for years to come.

As the market leader in IPv6 applications, information assurance, and transition, we offer the largest and most experienced team of v6 experts to support our your agency through this very important technology upgrade. From our work with federal and civilian IPv6 clients, DISA and the VA, to federal service providers Cisco and Bechtel, we bring unmatched large-scale transition and educational compliance experience to ensure a successful transition.

IPv6 Readiness Assessment
Understanding your agency’s current IPv6 readiness is the essential starting point for compliance. A complete automated assessment will allow for coherent strategy and planning that saves money and meets OMB IPv6 requirements by maximizing your existing equipments usable life and eliminating unnecessary procurements. Understanding the IPv6 gap analysis of your networked equipment will eliminate guesswork and avoid redundant tasks as you enable the IPv6 capability of your IT environment.

Command’s IPv6 Readiness Assessment is an automated network inventory of hardware, operating systems, and applications that provides a complete agency audit of networked assets, comparison against our proprietary knowledge base of IPv6-enabled assets, and a requirements plan detailing the level of effort necessary for IPv6 compliance. Back to top.

Technical and Operational Strategy
IPv6 is a transformational technology that will allow you to monitor and control your assets wherever they are deployed. How will you run your operation when you will have care, custody and control of all your assets where and when they are being used, and what exactly does that mean? What should you do near term, mid term, long term to enable your organization to leverage the power of IPv6. How do you prioritize your systems and projects for transition? Which projects should just run to end-of-life, as is, and which projects should be transitioned?

As your agency focuses on OMB 5-22, it’s best to have a well considered end point. At Command, our experience has been that you will be well served by a high-level IPv6 technical and operational strategy.

OMB 5-22 is focused on the network core but the value of IPv6 will come from the edge. The objective is to have a grounded strategy and operational plan that provides guidance to synchronize your efforts and directs initial actions now that will return efficiencies in capabilities, operation, and methodologies down the road. The technical and operation strategy provides a way to blend the financial, operational and technical realities of your agency into a single coordinated plan that will advance your operation into the next generation of technology and concurrently meet the OMB mandate. Back to top.
Training and Education
Your agency needs an in-house competent IPv6 technical and operational skill set. In order to meet the OMB Mandate, and even more importantly, in order to properly use the powerful features of IPv6 - you need IPv6 smarts. The value of a well-organized IPv6 training program will provide returns organization-wide.

Command’s believes that IPv6 is poised to fundamentally change the way network operations are integrated into your organization. The way you build networks, secure networks, use networks are all going to change with IPv6. Even if your plan is to not deploy IPv6, you still need to understand it in order to properly operate your networks in a mixed v4-v6 networked world.

IPv6 training is an organization-wide endeavor including C-level management, and not limited to Network Engineers and IT staff. The value of a top-to-bottom approach to training and education is that the true value proposition of v6 will be understood agency wide.

Command’s industry-leading IPv6 courseware includes: IPv6 for Executive Management, Building IPv6 Networks, IPv6 for IA Professionals and IP Address Allocation Workshop. Additional classes can be added as needed and training classes are available on or off-site, for staff at all levels of the agency. Back to top.
IPv6 Address Allocation Plan
IPv6 will provide a vast number of unique IP address to every organization. Command’s experience has been that as an agency begins to understand IPv6 and evaluates their network requirements with a large address block of IP addresses, there is usually a corresponding change in network architecture. Determining the proper allocation of addresses to myriad operating units inside an agency and planning for growth from existing and future operating units is an essential first step in deploying IPv6.

Designing a flexible and scalable IPv6 address plan and managing the address space using capable tools is a core competency of Command. We recommend a thorough agency-wide assessment drive the IPv6 address allocation plan including support for your current network topology and future agency growth - including the technical documents and assistance to support your agency's IPv6 address allocation request. Back to top.
IPv6 Integration Plan
Transitioning and deploying IPv6 requires the proper coordination of multiple departments of any agency - making a comprehensive integration plan critical to the process. From planning and procurement to platforms and information assurance, an IPv6 integration plan must address multiple topics around network-level and platform-level technology insert strategy. Priorities must be weighed against budget and agency mission, and the plan must address connectivity; inter-operability and co-existence.

Our experience shows us that paying specific attention to variables such as end-of-life planning and costs in the integration plan can extend the useful life of existing systems, applications, IT equipment, network infrastructure, and ultimately save costs. Remediation of non-IPv6-capable devices and/or software discovered during or after the integration planning is also a time and money saving variable. Back to top.
Information Assurance Audit
IPv6 represents a paradigm change for network security. The existing physical model for security will change with the advent of end-to-end and P2P connectivity and mobility. Distributed firewalls and node level security models will take on additional complexity during the projected long co-existence period when IPv4 and IPv6 will run concurrently.

Policy based security, coexistent security environments and updated security policies and procedures will be put to use to accommodate IPv6. All this must be done during an inter-operability and co-existence period without compromising functionality or stability. Part of the focus is on developing defense in-depth and policy-based security models and recommendations for upgrades and improvements.

The Information Assurance Audit includes an audit of all current security devices, IPv6 vulnerability of those devices, in addition to router and switch configurations. Back to top.

Speak with an OMB 5-22 expert or email us at omb522@commandfederal.com

Experience Matters

Command's team of experts is comprised of many of the leaders in IPv6 technology. They sit on the boards of the IETF, ARIN, IPv6 Task Force and IPv6 Business Council - and have for many years. Our IPv6 methods have been harneded by combining rigorous processes with years of federal and commercial transition efforts, including DISA, the VA, Cisco and Bechtel.

Choose your transition partner wisely - experience matters.

Working with Command

White Paper: America's Quest for IPv6

OMB 5-22 Compliance Offerings

Experience Matters