Small businesses are suffering from major IT problems, as many are not housing their IT systems in an appropriate way, a new survey suggests.
Servers have a habit of crashing at inopportune moments, causing disruption at crucial times for firms, yet experts say this is due to the way systems are stored and not the quality of the equipment or IT staff.
Research, compiled by Global Switch, claims that some 38% of UK companies house their data centres in office environments, which are not suitable for this purpose.
Inadequate housing can affect the functionality of important IT equipment, putting valuable corporate data at risk, the report claims.
The research also indicates that despite the dangers of housing 21st century IT equipment in inadequate physical environments, there has been a 6% increase in the number of companies who choose to locate their data centre in their own office building since last year.
Julian King, group commercial director at Global Switch, said: “The reliability of your IT systems is ultimately only as good as the environment in which the equipment is housed.
“The power and cooling demands of the latest high density servers simply cannot be met by ageing office buildings meaning equipment is exposed to avoidable risks.
“Directors should place greater importance on the physical environment in which they choose to locate their mission-critical IT infrastructure in order to mitigate risk and maximise performance.”
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