A disaster can hit at any time. It may or may not give a warning before it strikes and it may or may not cause significant damage when it does. One thing for certain is that companies do have the obligation to ensure they are not the cause of the disaster. What an organization does to respond is a reflection on their approach to the world around them.

When a disaster hit Tennessee in the form of massive flooding, AT&T (News - Alert) Tennessee, state and local flood response teams were ready. The response was so impressive that AT&T Tennessee officials praised response efforts and pledged support for relief efforts. This support included a $25,000 corporate donation to the Red Cross to help assist flood victims.

Flooding had severely impacted Nashville, Middle- and West-Tennessee and other parts of the state. To help enable those responding to the disaster, AT&T Tennessee offered designated relief shelters across the state with wireless cell phones designed specifically for those in need of phone service and communications support.

The company also announced that phone bank trucks, sophisticated communications vehicles featuring satellite wireless service with 24 cell phone lines each and WiFi (News - Alert) connections have been dispatched to the two disaster assistance centers already established in Nashville.

"The flooding here has been unprecedented, causing tragedy for thousands of Tennessee families," said Gregg Morton, president of AT&T Tennessee.

He also commended Gov. Bredesen, Nashville Mayor Dean and all the state and local officials whose communities were affected for their quick response to the crisis and for helping to facilitate recovery efforts.

Monitoring critical issues like temperature, humidity, smoke and airflow can help minimize financial loss in the face of disaster and reduce the time required to restore operations, which are key to business continuity.

Temperature monitoring within the enterprise, specifically in the data center, computer rooms and other facilities is an important part of disaster preparedness and disaster recovery. For those IT managers who make this a priority in their environments, they are much better prepared to handle and recover from a disaster if one should arise.

When the company monitors temperature, smoke, humidity, power and airflow, financial loss is minimized in the face of a disaster. It will also reduce the time required to restore operations, which are key to the continuity of the business. If IT operations are interrupted, the organization has no access to information, databases, e-mail or the Internet, bringing the business to a complete stop.

According to Forrester (News - Alert) Research, a reactive approach is not only cost-ineffective, but it also results in too much downtime, therefore the IT analysts recommend automation as the answer. There are three primary functional components managers should expect and demand from an IT environment monitoring solution: monitoring, alerting and automatic response.

TMC (News - Alert) Senior Editor Erin Harrison contributed to this article.