A West Midlands IT outsourcing business has set up a disaster recovery centre at its Tamworth headquarters to help firms avert potential hi-tech catastrophe.
Quiss Technology is providing a centre capable of accommodating up to 90 people for emergency help with IT.
Experts at Quiss say the facility could make the critical difference between survival and failure for businesses dependent upon IT continuity in the event of a major failure.
“Lose your IT for a few days and lose your business is no exaggeration in many cases and it applies to small and medium-sized businesses just as much as to major corporations,” said Andy Michael, managing director of Quiss.
The high-tech company employs nearly 100 at its headquarters in Staffordshire and its base in London.
“On 9/11 when the two aircraft crashed into the Twin Towers the big banks and other large organisations were able to get their IT going in a short time.
“But what is less often realised is that 70 per cent of the smaller businesses located in or around the Twin Towers never opened again.
“It is an extreme example of how it is impossible to prevent terrible things happening but it is possible to mitigate against the consequences.
“But disaster can come in the most unexpected ways, even when there is no physical damage to an office.
“In 2007 a major fire at a fuel depot in Hemel Hempstead resulted in a nearby industrial unit being cordoned off for a prolonged period. A business on the site lost access to its IT and it ended up going out of business.”
Mr Michael said disaster in the corporate world came in many forms, with the most obvious being fire or flood.
“Fire has been a hazard since time began but with climate change the risk of flood is not just something that might happen to people living in the lowlands of East Anglia once in a lifetime. The events of 2007 were a wake-up call for many people. Much of the Midlands in the Severn and Teme Valley were devastated, not to mention the problems in Hull.”
He said that throughout the UK there were tens of thousands of businesses operating on land in river flood plains as a result of planning decisions made in haste, all of which were in potential jeopardy. As well as the hazards from a changing climate other risks include accidental damage putting a building out of use, sabotage or even terrorism which could all force companies to collapse.
“Our Disaster Recovery Centre can be up and running within hours,” added Andy Michael. “Providing systems back-up is in place, the key IT functions can be working in virtually no time.”
