Your network is as valuable to your large energy company as the oil rigs scattered around the globe that pump out your revenue. Not having these remote cash cows online continues to be a business problem.

You can no longer rely on an end-of-the-week satellite phone call for updates and forecasts from these remote—yet essential—outposts. The solution? Connect your rigs to the rest of the enterprise via satellite. You already have much of the know-how you need, since your company was a leader in establishing the satellite technology that now lets your gas stations send data to you in seconds.

For this project, plan to roll out the network to 10 of your oil rigs. Start with a satellite dish at your hard-wired corporate network hub, which will transmit data to and receive it from dishes at the remote sites. Programmers and database administrators will iron out any integration bumps and make sure the necessary applications and data operate correctly on the new network channel. Heavy-duty satellite modems will send data to and from the local area networks at each site; plan for a wireless LAN at each rig.

You'll want a satellite service provider that can guarantee upload speeds of at least 512 kilobits per second. Managing traffic from 11 sites on a shared satellite channel can be tricky, so plan to install a network control station to keep the flow going.

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