Research by Contingency Planning, Strategic Research Corporation, and DTI/PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the effect of downtime and data and application loss on small to medium enterprises caused 70 per cent of small firms to go out of business within a year of the event; a new cloud-based continuity service addresses this problem.

US-based Axcient has launched its Axcient cloud continuity which the company claimed enables businesses to launch all of their servers in Axcient’s Cloud with just a couple of clicks. “With Cloud Continuity, SMBs now have total business continuity for the first time,” the company says. When local servers fail, users can run a virtual office on Axcient’s cloud platform allowing employees to continue working on their data and applications — from any Internet-enabled device at any location – regardless of what happened to being the server down.

Cloud Continuity does not require users to make changes to their network environment, install software, or make upfront investments. The company offers Cloud Continuity as a monthly service. Cloud Continuity is built on HP hardware and will be available in early November 2011.