#3. Mobile devices in the workforce:

Another trend to make this list is the use of mobile devices in the workforce. This means even if the disaster strikes, the use of mobile phones and other gadgets can provide facilities to continue with IT operations and business processes.

"I might not carry my laptop wherever I go, but if all of a sudden we've got a disaster I've probably got my Blackberry in my shirt pocket. Anything that facilitates connectivity in a ubiquitous way is a plus," says George Muller, vice president, sales planning, supply chain & IT at Imperial Sugar, Sugar Land, Texas, a processor and marketer of refined sugar.

But along with its positive impacts, the use of mobile devices has also made disaster recovery slightly more complex. Dines says that “Along with mobile devices comes more data center infrastructure, such as mobile device management and products such as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which are often very critical, this becomes one more system that must be planned for and properly protected."