Microsoft has scrapped plans to use IPv6 only on its internal network

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Microsoft has scrapped plans to use only IPv6 on its network because it would also block VPNs. The company said an IPv6-only network would block VPNs, which would be a problem for its campus visitors. The decision comes after Microsoft experienced a similar issue where Teams could not connect to a VPN because the internet access provided by the meeting was IPv6-only.

Microsoft said its guests and customers will need VPNs to securely access their own corporate networks and gateways, using only IPv6 networks, are not possible. Microsoft encountered something that previous internal testing had not uncovered. A team member attended a meeting where Internet access was only available as IPv6, and 99% of attendees could not get their VPN clients to connect to that network.

In addition, Microsoft said that the deployment of IPv6 is not under its control, but the company plans to keep both IPv4 and IPv6 on its network. The deployment of IPv6 by other companies is beyond Microsoft's control. However, Microsoft has not completely abandoned IPv6 and is working to make VPNs run on IPv6 networks. Microsoft is also trying to test a client pool that only uses IPv6, which means no IPv4 inside the VPN tunnel. Microsoft has found that VPN vendors do not support clients with only IPv6 profiles, and Microsoft is waiting for a new VPN gateway code version to be released in the next six months.

It may be a while before Microsoft finally rolls out an IPv6-only network, but for now, at least its visitors can access the network without breaking out of VPN.