Buy & Lease Of IPv4 Addresses & /24 Subnets. Why is it Worth It?

An IPv4 address has 4 sets of 8-bit fields as the format. For example, the United Nations' main website UN.org uses the IPv4 address 204.246.191.19. Due to the overall depletion of the available Internet Protocol version 4 (abbreviated IPv4), there is a market for leasing, buying, and selling IPv4 addresses. What do you need to know about IP addresses and IPv4 in general?

1. According to Google the number of internet users who access Google's services between 2010 and 2022, went up by 45%. Most of these are IPv6 addresses used by the internet service providers for internet access purposes though. Most data center-hosted networks and devices, software platforms, and applications used for creating, managing, and hosting apps still rely heavily on IPv4 addresses. Although many ISPs adopted the IPv6 standard, when it comes to cloud storage, cloud server hosting, cloud websites, and applications hosted on bare-metal dedicated servers and data centers, IPv4 is still mainstream.

The cloud infrastructure worldwide, all virtual private servers, and physical dedicated servers in use are based on IPv4. If any organization wants to create its own Virtual Private Network (VPN), it needs to use dedicated IPv4 addresses.

2. Depending on the cloud infrastructure would you use and the IT services you plan to deliver, your organization may need any number of IPv4 addresses between 1 and 256 or even more. We mention 256 because there are 256 IPv4 addresses in a /24 IPv4 class. It is important to remember that if any organization wants to own and establish an independent cloud network, it needs to have at least 1 x /24 IPv4 subnet.

If you want to get your own Autonomous system from ARIN, RIPE, or any other regional internet registry, and establish your own network, you'd need to either own or lease a /24 IPv4 class subnet. If you do are comfortable using cloud services with the network and leased IPs from any cloud hosting provider, then you do not need to own IPs.

You might consider IPs as digital property thought. They are the digital equivalent of physical infrastructure. The prices of IPv4 addresses went up 6 times between 2010 and 2022 all the way from $10 to $60 per IP address. Currently, the major ISPs in the U.S. charge their clients between $7 and $15 per month per IP address and it doesn't look like these prices would go down.

Data center service providers charge their clients different amounts per IP address, depending on usage case. HostColor charges between $1 - $3 per month for the use of a single dedicated IP address.

So, if your organization is planning to establish a complex digital infrastructure, it is worth considering buying a /24 IPv4 subnet. Even with an average price of the IP addresses varying between $45 and $60 per IP, or $11,520 - $15, 360, it is still worth owning a /24 IPv4 class subnet.

Why do you need a dedicated IP address?

It allows you to use a uniquely identify device across any cloud network in the first place.

When you use a dedicated IP, you have complete access to the hosted application, regardless of the domain name servers (DNS) in use. Whoever wants to use reliable, business-class email services, for example, should use a dedicated IP address. Why? Because when you use a dedicated IP, you can avoid email spoofing with an SPF record.

For example, to create a network configuration for a dedicated server, you'd need 4 IPv4 addresses - for network ID, default gateway, host IP address, and broadcast IP.

If you use a Virtual Server (a Cloud server or a VPS) or a Dedicated Server (physical server device) you need at least one usable IP address to be used as a host address on the server. For example, a dedicated server would need 4 IPv4 addresses - one for a usable IP and three more for network ID, gateway, and broadcast IP.

The new model of designing applications, called "Cloud-native" - see the publication "Cloud-native or Monolithic Apps?" - there is a growing demand for IPv4 addresses. The reason is that the cloud-native apps are hosted in scalable clusters of containers, which themselves require IPv4 addresses. Kubernetes for example, the computing platform that can be considered a backbone technology for the use the cloud-native apps has a core networking requirement - every pod (execution unit) should get its own IP address. Every execution unit in a Kubernetes cluster should be able to talk to other pods using this IP address.

So, IPv4 addresses will be important for the foreseeable future, and considering that there are a limited number of our there, it is very likely that their acquisition and lease prices will continue growing. With a large number of organizations that have purchased IPv4 resources at historically high prices, it is a no-brainer to project that the average lease price of the IP addresses would double within the next few years.

So, even if your organization has paid $50 - $60 per IP address to acquire its own /24 IPv4 subnet, you'd be able to charge your clients between a reasonable monthly fee of $2 - $3 per IP address. This means that you'd be able to repay the investment in 17 - 25 months. Investing in IPv4 resources brings a much better return compared to real estate investment, for example.

If you do not want to buy IPv4 space, but still need to use IP addresses for reasonable, compliant technology use (excluding email marketing and proxy usage)? Call HostColor and would lease some of our IPv4 space. We promise you a great deal if you use the IPs on HC's Cloud infrastructure or Dedicated Servers.