A firm of solicitors has reduced its overheads by introducing a new disaster recovery plan for email, it has been claimed.

Computerweekly.com reports that O'Neill Patient now backs up its email using a new system which helps them meet compliance and reporting requirements.

Speaking to the website, Tony McCartney, the firm's head of network support, said: "[It] helped our lawyers with legal compliance and means they don't need to worry about the emails. It has reduced the size of email storage, back-up times and [has] improved productivity."

He added that without implementing the new disaster recovery system, the growth rate of the firm would have meant it would have soon encountered problems in meeting regulatory standards.

Last week, a study by IT analyst IDC found that 81 per cent of firms now feel that safeguarding data is a key part of their operations.

It also found that high-profile data leaks have led to an increase demand for IT security products.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to www.totalrecall.co.uk.