Small businesses could find a need to hire IT contractors to allow them to roll out a consistent disaster recovery plan.

Rob Lovell, chief executive officer at ThinkGrid, claimed that this is one thing that many owners overlook.

He explained: "It is something that is definitely overlooked and probably for the wrong reasons - probably because people think it's going to be expensive or very complicated."

Cloud computing is becoming an increasingly central part of disaster recovery plans, with IT contractors being hired to ensure that everything workers can do in the office is available over the internet.

Mr Lovell says that this approach can enable collaborators to work as well out of the office as if they were sat next to the person they are working with.

Recent research by Teneros found that while most companies are interested in rolling out a business continuity plan of this sort, the majority are put off by the effort and cost involved in setting up the infrastructure.