The Daily App: Disaster Alert for iPhone

Whether a volcano spewing on the other side of the ocean is halting all air traffic, including cargo, or a potential hurricane may disrupt power and resources a continent away, disasters anywhere can disrupt our lives and business no matter how far away.

In information technology, disasters in another geography now can mean solution providers and service providers need to kick it into gear to reroute data backups, transaction processing, or more just to protect a business close to home from disruption.

There are a number of apps now available that let you monitor world disasters in real time, including Disaster Alert – free download from the Apple iTunes App Store that provides among the most granular, worldwide disaster data you’ll find.

Produced by the Pacific Disaster Center, Disaster Alert provides streaming data on all registered “events” globally – from earthquakes in Japan to droughts in Kenya to flooding in Kenya or South Dakota. This app also delineates between “warnings” and “advisories,” and provides its information both in list format or map format. Disaster Alert also eliminates noise, by posting only events that are “potentially hazardous to people, property, and assets.”

If a business or enterprise in the Midwest region of the U.S. depends on data centers in Southeast Asia or Central Europe, knowing in real-time when an issue emerges could provide the heads-up needed for timely, business-critical decisions.