Putting together a workable method of bringing IT systems back online in the event of a disaster has been highlighted as key for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

With companies relying more and more on technology solutions to speed up and streamline their business activities, the potential commercial damage due to a system breakdown is growing, according to Bob Tarzey of analyst firm Quocirca.

"The people and the IT are often the most important assets of the business," he told Computer Weekly.

"The risk of business failure is high for SMEs because many have one or a few locations, which house all the IT."

Mr Tarzey pointed out that recent research has found that the majority of SME workers now have to make use of a computer as part of their duties.

When coupled with the finding that most SMEs have more than one location to work from, there are substantial risks to a firm being brought to a standstill by a disruption to their IT systems.

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.