AWS has introduced a new service that allows customers to create virtual private cloud (VPC) environments using only IPv6 addresses. This would be especially useful for workloads and applications that use a lot of IP addresses.
VPC environments are almost always available in a dual-stack mode in public cloud environments. It means that the environments support both the old IPv4 and the newer IPv6 addresses. AWS is now changing that and introducing a (sub)service for VPC environments that only supports IPv6 addresses
The advantage of an iPv6 subnet in a VPC, according to the public cloud giant, is that it can be used for workloads or applications that require a large number of IP addresses. Think of containers or serverless applications. Each individual IPv6 subnet in an AWS VPC can provide up to ten trillion IP addresses in a /64 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) range.
The only drawback is that EC2 instances that are created on IPv6-only subnets must run on their own Nitro hypervisor and network card. It does, however, provide more performance and security.
IPv6 subnets useful?
Whether creating an IPv6 subnet in a VPC is really useful remains to be seen. Especially for clients that only work on an IPv4 network. AWS indicates that administrators have to perform a number of extra complex actions for this, but that an IPv6 subnet can eventually be used.
Furthermore, it would still be unclear how conflicts between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are prevented. However, the service does give hardware suppliers and developers the guarantee that their applications and solutions also work via IPv6.
Precursor
With the IPv6-only service, AWS is ahead of competitors Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. These public cloud providers offer dual-stack, but are not yet ready to offer IPV6-only.
AWS indicates that the service is available immediately for free in all AWS public regions and the various AWS GovCloud environments in the United States. The service is also available in the AWS China (Beijing) region operated by Sinnet and the AWS China (Ningxia) region operated by NWCD.
