Whiting says high availability is one of the reasons he's committed to Rite Aid's satellite system. Nonetheless, satellites are rarely the easy choice for enterprise data or content transmission. Leased lines or frame relay are still the safe options, in the same way that IBM was the safe choice for computing equipment two decades ago.
Satellite systems have another drawback.
There isn't much to be done right now about the propagation speed of electromagnetic transmissions. But one satellite negative that's rapidly being addressed is the previously proprietary nature of the systems and a lack of interoperability standards. Ron Clifton, president and CEO of International Datacasting Corp., a supplier of satellite multicasting systems, says the typical enterprise sale today is to an IS executive rather than a satellite specialist. The key is to make sure the IS person is comfortable with the equipment, and that it's easy to manage. Software compatibility is another essential standard for enterprise satellite use.