Despite the UK being subject to more in the way of heavy flooding than hot weather so far this summer, British firms have been warned not to forget their disaster recovery plans in the face of a potential spike in summer temperatures.

Most disaster recovery considerations across June and July have involved drying off damage after two bouts of heavy flooding that left thousands of businesses reeling. As weather reports for August, however, finally begin to look up, industry figures are warning firms they may need to consider ways to keep their computer rooms cool.

"It may seem a remote prospect at the moment," said Ayling, business development director of consultancy firm Migration Solutions.

"All too often [however], a company's computer room or data centre has evolved from a couple of PCs in a cupboard into a business critical system and it is worth making the business think about the consequences of losing an application on a server for any length of time.

"After all a well-run, functional and efficient computer room or data centre is essential for a business' success, and for its survival."

Even though most SMB computer systems now come with cooling systems to keep internal temperatures below 220C, sustained periods of warm weather can still put overworked servers under immense pressure and lead to possible meltdown.

Research for Connect in 2007 found that 88 per cent of UK businesses were interested in Disaster Recovery systems primarily to protect their critical applications and data