UK floods hit IT departments

Flooding has forced a number of companies to invoke their disaster recovery plans.

Companies from sectors including finance, local government and utilities, have all been affected by the recent flooding around Gloucester, according to disaster recovery company SunGard, which said more than half a dozen of its customers have invoked their disaster recovery plans.

Keith Tilley, MD and senior vice president of Europe at SunGard Availability Services, said some customers were up and running the next day after being hit by the floods.

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Some company buildings are water-logged, he explained, while others have had to abandon workplaces because of associated power failures and one company cannot use their building because the water supplies have been contaminated.

Tilley said: "Looking at the situation today, with the water receding, we are expecting one, maybe two, of the customers to go back because they can get into their buildings."

But he added: "Unless we see a dramatic change in the weather again we're hopeful that we have seen the peak and [water levels] will start to go back to normal over the next few days."