Companies have been urged to upgrade their data centres to ensure that out-of-date systems do not compromise their IT network.

A study of more than 600 data centre facilities worldwide by the Aperture Research Institute found that more than a third were built over four years ago.

This should concern firms as efforts to make sure employees back-up sensitive or mission-critical data would prove pointless if despite the attentions of IT support workers, the systems holding the data fail due to their age.

But ominously, almost two thirds of the facilities questioned said they were not planning an upgrade to their systems or building new data centres.

Steve Yellen, principal of the Aperture Research Institute, said: "The average time required to plan and build a new data centre is typically three or more years, which leads us to a worrying conclusion about the future of data centres and the impact of this lack of foresight."

However, firms were warned that they cannot simply buy modern hardware and slot it straight into existing facilities, as the power and cooling demands of newer machines are likely to be higher.