Limiting the growing costs (and pains) of data loss

A recent report by EMCstates that data loss costs companies $1.7 trillion per year. The same report states that organizations that are relying on two or more data protection vendors had 14% more data loss than those who relied on a single tool.

• Here's the report itself.
  
• This blog post summarizes some of the key points from the report.

So what is the answer here if, as the report states, the more data protection tools we use the worse off we are? Is this just an inevitable issue that is going to continue to become more and more costly, or are there strategies/solutions that most companies are simply overlooking? What have you personally seen at your own organization that has been (so far) an effective strategy for keeping your data secure and backed up?