The cloud provider OVHcloud has launched the service Bring Your Own IPv4, with which it wants to allow its customers to reuse public IPv4 blocks as failover addresses in the event of a blackout. This import service, known as BYOIP, allows customers to import, via their OVHcloud control panel, any range of existing IPv4 addresses that they may need to use as fail-safe IP address blocks in the cloud.
This service, which was already available to some of the company’s clients as part of a trial period and restricted access. Now it reaches the rest of the company’s clients, which ensures that BYOIP will facilitate network planning when migrating to the cloud. Customers can count on any IP address they provide, and according to OVHcloud, the service offers complete reversibility, so customers’ IPv4 addresses will be free from blocking when appropriate.
Each OVHcloud service includes a preconfigured IPv4 and IPv6 block, but users can add up to 256 IP addresses for more flexibility. It supports floating IPs, which can move from one service to another in the same data center, and customers can switch IPs between different data centers. Of course, in order to do so, the data centers have to be in the same country. With this capability, the company says, customers can run high-availability services and manage infrastructure-related issues such as hardware failures and system overloads.
The BYOIP service is available with the OVHcloud Bare Metal Cloud serviceas well as with hosted public private cloud and their public cloud products. Also in vRack and in IP Load balancer (IP load balancer). The company offers this new service «in the context of a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses«.
The last blocks of IPv4 addresses available were reportedly handed out in 2019, although IPv4 is still widely used, and many see little reason for a migration to IPv6. Especially since entire companies can hide behind network address translation schemes, and because blocks of addresses can be retrieved from networks that no longer need them. Or release them.
The BYOIP service is paid monthly, and has no fixed fees or commitments. The company agrees with its customers the price based on various factors. The service will be rolled out in the coming weeks in all OVHcloud data centers.
