The great British weather. It’s something of a joke that’s heard all too often in the UK, however, recent weather is something of a rarity.

Over the festive period and into the months after, the UK was battered with unusual weather- high winds, torrential rain and landslides.

The deluge has led some companies to review their disaster recovery solutions and data center strategies. And according to companies offering third-party solutions such as MigSolv and Sungard Availability Services, this is leading to more customer enquiries.

UK-based data center consultancy and independent colocation provider Migsolv has a data center located on the outskirts of Norwich which is not on the 1,000 year old flood plains.

MigSolv’s CEO Alex Rabbetts said the company’s phones have been “exceedingly busy” with organizations enquiring about disaster recovery solutions. He said the main enquiries are from within the financial services industry, although other sectors have also been in touch.

The company said many of the organizations currently have disaster recovery points in Berkshire towns such as Slough and Reading, which have been badly affected by flooding recently- although data center facilities have remained unaffected.

Speaking to Migsolv’s director Jacob Barreth, he said the company’s disaster recovery infrastructure can move 15 to 30 racks in a matter of weeks.

“As the data center is already pre-planned we can deploy customer infrastructure within a few days, we spent a lot of money doing it right,” Barreth said.

He said that it takes extreme situations for companies to take a step back and think about disaster recovery and migration solutions.

“If you think about it in terms of home insurance people will more than likely go for the lowest cost. It’s not until they’re broken into and realize their policy doesn’t cover it that they will go and source a better insurer.”

The company has not moved any customers throughout this bought of weather but said it has seen a lot of companies reconsidering their data center strategies especially in Slough, Reading and Docklands.

Similar to Migsolv, US-based Sungard Availability Services has helped UK businesses by helping to relocate IT infrastructure to recovery centers after their offices were flooded.

In the recent months of flooding the company has moved two companies from the South East to its facilities; which equates to moving around 400 staff members.

The company said there were four weather related alerts with just under 700 employees ready to move to its facilities if their properties were flooded.

In 2007 Sungard Availability Services helped law firm Irwin Mitchell move its business from its Sheffield head office to one of its recovery center facility in Elland, West Yorkshire so the law firm could keep running regardless of the extreme weather.

The company provided a fully operational call center within 14 hours of the enquiry by working throughout the night.

SunGard Availability Services’s EVP of EMEA Keith Tilley said regardless of a company’s situation customers and partners expect responses instantly in today's connected world.

“…if one part of your process or even your wider supply chain is hindered by the impact of flooding, it could be a number of months, or even years before that relationship is re-established. Even for business not based in the area, there could be knock-on effects if you regularly rely on services from the area.”