London City Airport has decided to take a major step in its IT security by implementing a disaster recovery system in order to solidify communications to its head office.

It is hoped that the new systems will be able to boost its voice and data organisation in order for workers to respond more swiftly in a situation where systems could be rendered problematic, such as a terrorist attack or an aviation disaster.

Jason Bamforth, the IT director at London City Airport, said: "All businesses need a disaster recovery plan but airports and airlines' reputations rest on their ability to expect the unexpected."

Commenting on the disaster recovery system, he continued: "With it in place, we know that the phones will keep ringing and we can keep the outside world up to date with any situation."

InTechnology recently informed ZDNet that small businesses in IT need to prioritise the information they want to save first when implementing online data backup, otherwise it could take much longer to restore order following a disaster.

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 online backup.