As news and social media platforms around the world continue to spread information about the coronavirus and its potential negative impact on our health, lives, and businesses, it can be difficult to determine what is real or imagined.

On one hand, are we dealing with a modern-day pandemic that if not taken seriously enough could creep up on us like a zombie in the night? Or are we instead dealing with an infodemic that has finally reached its full incubation period after years of gestation from watching movies like 28 Days Later and playing video games like Resident Evil?

The reality is that it could be both –much in the same way that IPv4 and IPv6 are both protocols that if not paid proper attention, could detrimentally impact or benefit the health of the Internet.

As more businesses, schools, and government institutions instruct millions of employees to work from home, concerns about the strength of the internet’s infrastructure arise. More people video conferencing and kids no longer in school, but rather playing video games, will mean more connections and more bandwidth usage…

Not quite. According to large ISP’s such as AT&T and Verizon, the volume of traffic will not necessarily change. However, what will change is usage patterns – mainly more use of home networks versus business networks.

Therefore, the need for IPv4 will continue to increase because there will be a need for more devices connecting to VPN’s, smaller networks, video streaming and websites.

In short, the diagnosis is that if your organization relies on offshore manufacturing, it has been affected by current market conditions. Most of the market has endured a 10% loss over the last month, which has been notably the largest market loss since 2008. Therefore, if you have extra unused IPv4 address space, this is an excellent opportunity to sell IPv4 addresses and generate additional revenue  to offset losses. The added profits can be a welcomed way to survive during what can become a world epidemic.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if your organization is the type that will benefit from more consumers accessing the internet from home, now may be an opportune time to buy Buy IPv4 space you need before IPv4 supply decreases or prices rise. For instance, Zoom Videos stock has increased 20% over the last month, even while most companies have seen a massive loss.

Making sense of information, real or imagined is a choice we all have to make. Either take action now and mitigate perceived future risk or hold steady and weather the storm.

At the end of the day, the best plan of action may be to plan for both.