Google hits 50% IPv6 adoption, a milestone for internet infrastructure
Tags Infrastructure · Enterprise · OSS
Google's services have reached 50% IPv6 traffic, meaning half of all connections to Google now use the next-generation internet protocol rather than IPv4. The milestone, reported by APNIC, reflects years of industry effort to transition to IPv6 as IPv4 addresses have been exhausted. The shift has implications for network architecture, security tooling, and application development, as IPv6 adoption removes the need for NAT traversal workarounds and enables end-to-end connectivity at scale.
Technical significance
50% IPv6 at Google is a tipping point for the internet's protocol transition. For developers, it means IPv6-first design is no longer optional — applications that assume IPv4 will increasingly fail for a significant share of users. For network engineers, it accelerates the timeline for deprecating IPv4 infrastructure and requires updating security monitoring, firewall rules, and logging systems that may not fully support IPv6.