Cloud computing serves as effective disaster recovery solution

According to a recent InformationWeek article, cloud computing is becoming a major disaster recovery solution, as companies in one part of the world can help others in affected areas.

As many companies have begun adopting the cloud, the managed IT service allows them to store data in a hosted environment; thus, if an office falls victim to a disaster and loses locally stored data, the sensitive information can be re-shared once systems are back up and running.

Cloud providers are also making this avenue as effective as possible, with some offering free services to shift their stored data to a center located in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas or Frankfurt, Germany.

"Should our customers have the desire to move their data out of the region, we will make sure that it is transitioned smoothly and in a timely manner, with no disruption to their business operations," Scott Genereaux, CEO of well-known cloud provider, told InformationWeek.

In an area such as Japan, which was recently ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, the ability to access data created and stored before the disasters will be a major step forward for businesses re-establishing themselves.