4D Data Centres has written an article/case study on how to achieve business continuity during adverse weather and other business disruptions, based on its own experience in data centre management.

PRESS DISPENSARY - Thursday, Jan 14, 2010 - Business continuity - staying open for business no matter what the obstacles - should be (but frequently isn't) near the top of any sensible business leader's priorities at the moment, having been challenged not only by recent economic conditions and consequent belt-tightening, but by the worst winter for 30 years, with resultant paralysis in transport and other infrastructure services, and estimates of business losses running into the billions of pounds.

A company which already understands continuity very well is 4D Data Centres Ltd (http://www.4d-dc.com ), whose entire business model depends on providing round-the-clock online data services, come what may. In the light of recent conditions, 4D Data Centre's Matt Harris has written an article describing how 4D has kept its clients' businesses up and running during the January 2010 Big Freeze, with salutary lessons for any business manager. This article is now available to editors for publication.

4D's clients depend on 4D to provide servers and data facilities, and to keep those services online. For virtually all clients, 4D's service is mission-critical as even a short outage would see those businesses grinding to halt. Consequently, 4D has spent the last seven years analysing everything that could affect its services and has planned accordingly, putting measures in place so that it can meet or exceed its obligations to provide power 100% of the time and a network 99.999% of the time.

In his article, 4D's Matt Harris shares the key planning points, starting with the old scouting/guide motto 'be prepared' and taking readers through measures designed to cope with everything from transport and power outages to H1N1 swine flu and third party industrial disputes.

Matt says: "It's staggering how few businesses actually plan for situations such as sudden unavailability of staff and other severe disruptions. Within two days of the January Big Freeze starting, the Daily Mail was estimating the cost to business in the UK at over GBP 14 billion, much of which could have been avoided with proper planning."

It's impossible to say at this point whether more severe weather is on its way this winter, but Matt points out that snow is not the only threat: "2010 is going to be the year of swingeing government budget cuts, whoever wins the election, and realistically this is bound to have a serious effect on Britain's infrastructure, from worsening transport systems to industrial disputes. We can also expect to see more serious flooding, both from the thaw - whenever it comes - and in line with the pattern of summers over recent years. Couple this with the fact that some businesses are cutting staff levels - which means fewer people to fall back on - and it's clear that the need for continuity planning has gone critical."

A preview of the article is available at http://www.4d-dc.com/about-4d/news.asp . Editors and journalists are free to use the article in its entirety or to cherry-pick quotes provided credit is given always to Matt Harris and 4D Data Centres Ltd. Matt Harris is also available for interviews on +44 (0)207 183 0604.

Notes for editors

4D Data Centres Ltd, formed in 2002, owns and operates its own carrier neutral data centre in Byfleet, Surrey, offering secure co-location space with 24x7 on-site engineers, clean power and some of the best service level guarantees available in the market. The business has a successful track record based on providing high value, secure and reliable co-location services.

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