Natural disasters pose serious IT risks

Natural disasters cannot be predicted or prevented, though, in many cases, they can be adequately prepared for.

According to Fresh Business Thinking, the recent earthquakes and tsunamis that struck Japan serve as a reminder for businesses to implement a disaster prevention plan that takes into account the potential for IT data loss.

Furthermore, the news source maintains that the overarching concern of enterprises and their data loss prevention strategies should be "business continuity."

"With the growing risk of man-made and natural disasters it is essential for organizations to formulate sensible and workable business continuity plans to cover any eventuality,” Julian Buck, managing director of Version One, told the media organization.

Experts say that a viable data loss prevention alternative is cloud computing. In regards to natural disasters, the cloud enables data to be stored across a number of data centers, situated in diverse geographical locations. Additionally, cloud computing enables the allocation of additional processing power that could help a business get up an running once again.

Some data loss prevention measures deployed in recent years may have been proven effective. According to a report by Verizon, data loss in 2010 was at the lowest level in 25 years.