A huge storm has battered southern Britain over night and into Monday morning. The storm, named St Jude, is the largest experienced in the country for years and has already caused a huge amount of damage, as well as the tragic loss of four lives.

Winds of up to 99mph have been recorded which has left nearly a quarter of a million homes without any power, as well as rail and road networks in chaos. Flights to and from Southern Airports have also seen disruption.� The Environment Agency has advised people to stay in doors if they don�t have to travel, which has had a knock-on effect on businesses throughout the south of England.

Train companies have had to cancel or reduce their services, with Southwest Trains, East Coast, First Great Western, Virgin West Coast just some of the providers cancelling services on Monday morning. London has also been greatly effected, with disruption to rail and air travel common across the South East in general.

It is events like this that should focus many businesses on how their data is protected and whether they have in place an effective and fully tested Disaster Recovery plan. With people finding it difficult to get to their place of work, an effective DR plan utilising Backup Technology�s Online Backup and Virtual Disaster Recovery services means workers could effectively work remotely from their home without the need to travel in such circumstances. Whilst businesses should be protecting their data with regular backup routines, are these backups managed and fully offsite, should the unthinkable happen and an office or place of work is destroyed?

One of the most important commodities in today’s world is data, whether it be customer details, communication data (such as emails) or critical documents. Taking the time to plan for potential disasters is a key part of maintaining a good service to customers of all businesses!