Red Hat Ready to Serve U.S. Government with IPv6 Conformity

University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory Tests Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 for IPv6 Interoperability Against USGv6 Host Profile

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 has met the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s USGv6 evaluation requirements, giving United States government agencies confidence that, as they make the migration to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 conforms with the USGv6 Host profile.

“An IPv6-enabled state will be able to better counter the IT challenges posed by the ongoing uptrend towards the connected society, and our conformance in this testing gives government customers confidence that Red Hat can serve as their trusted advisor for these initiatives.”

While the move to IPv6 is now critical for U.S. government agencies with the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, IPv6 also enables government networks to scale for new initiatives, including cloud computing, broadband, and smart grid. As a result, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop the technical infrastructure – including standards and testing – to support wide scale adoption of IPv6. NIST subsequently developed a technical standards profile and testing program – known as USGv6 – which certifies hosts, routers, switches, and security products for U.S. Government acquisition against IPv6 functionality and other technical capabilities. Under the USGv6 profile, all IT network vendors must provide a Suppliers Declaration of Conformity (SDOC) for USGv6 to be considered for any new government IT purchases.

To declare conformance, Red Hat fulfilled USGv6 requirements by completing the prescribed product development for IPv6 conformance and interoperability testing for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 achieved conformity after rigorous testing by the University of New Hampshire’s InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), one of two accredited third-party labs approved for USGv6 testing.

UNH-IOL tested Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 against the mandatory fields – including USGv6 Base, Stateless Address Auto-Configuration (SLAAC), Addressing Architecture, Encapsulating Security Payloads (ESP), Internet Key Exchange (IKEv2), and IP Security v3 (IPSec-v3), confirming that Red Hat Enterprise Linux met NIST’s technical standards and interoperability evaluation requirements. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is now in full conformance with mandatory fields, and able to support deployment of secure, end-to-end, IPv6-enabled network services, which enable Federal agency core missions and applications.

“Red Hat’s USGv6 SDOC conformance with mandatory fields shows that U.S. government agencies can protect their investments in IPv6 technologies by taking advantage of advanced functionality and features provided in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6,” said Paul Smith, vice president and general manager, Public Sector, Red Hat. “An IPv6-enabled state will be able to better counter the IT challenges posed by the ongoing uptrend towards the connected society, and our conformance in this testing gives government customers confidence that Red Hat can serve as their trusted advisor for these initiatives.”

“IPv6 compliance is a critical component as our nation’s Internet infrastructure evolves," said Timothy Winters, senior manager, IP Technologies, UNH-IOL. “The testing we do at UNH-IOL is vigorous, thorough, and objective. As a result, government agencies can be assured that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 meets the requirements for federal agency SDOC approval.”

Additional Resources

• Red Hat Government
• Details on Red Hat’s certifications
• Red Hat Government on Twitter

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Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.

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