A large number of companies are putting off data centre investment in order to slash IT costs due to the current economic market, it has been stated.

Research director for storage software at the market intelligence company IDC Laura DuBois said that recessionary attitudes are causing many to look away from things such as online backup, despite the importance that much of it may have.

She explained that storage software expenditures are regularly scrutinised first by organisations which are looking to get "quick paybacks".

Projects which do not meet these criteria tend to be postponed or cancelled until the economy rebounds, Ms DuBois explained, adding: "Although this means lower sales in the short term, it also means that there is a ready backlog of projects that can be switched on very quickly."

Her comments follow a survey earlier in the month by IDC, which found that the global storage software market experienced its first fall in 21 consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2009, with revenues of £1.72 billion.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.