The last IPv4 addresses have been allocated, highlighting the need for companies and organizations to move to a new system amid the ever increasing number of net-connected devices. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) made the announcement at an event in Miami on Thursday.

Each of the five regional Internet registries has been allocated a single block of around 16 million addresses. While true exhaustion would be hard to gauge -- a small number of IP addresses will be held for several years for the transition -- the rate at which the different registrars will burn through their allocations will likely vary.

APNIC, the registrar in the Asia-Pacific region, will likely run out first in the next few months. ARIN (North America's registrar) and RIPE NCC (controlling Europe, Middle Eastern, and Russian IP needs) are in a better position, likely being able to make it through the year on their current allocation.

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It sucks that ISPs are so slow to adopt IPv6.

My ISP is generously enough to let me lease up to five dynamic IPv4 addresses from the DHCP server, but still. I want IPv6! :D