On the same day that its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering became available, security provider Webroot today opened the doors of its first data centre in the southern hemisphere.

The fully redundant facility, which is located in a secured complex near Sydney, has been built by investing in carbon offset credits.

Webroot COO, Mike Irwin, said the new site was an important milestone in Webroot's expansion in the Asia Pacific region.

"In Australia we have a robust, educated market which provides an excellent foundation for our expansion and introduction to the Asia Pacific area," Irwin said.

"Having a local data centre will enhance the level of service we are able to offer our customers here in Australia and around the world."

The Sydney data centre is the first in a series of significant investments Webroot is planning to undertake in the region in the next few years.

"With industry analysts predicting massive growth for SaaS in the Asia Pacific region, Webroot recognises the importance of the Australian market to the company's growth overall," Irwin said.

Most companies, he said, are aware of the threat posed by spam.

However, malware providers have changed their tactics and are now serving up malicious code via HTML or Web protocols.

As a result, Irwin said an estimated 85 per cent of malware is downloaded via the Web.

"There are literally thousands of infected Web sites out there and many of them are trusted by customers which is why this technique is so attractive to cyber criminals," he said.

"It is imperative that businesses deploy a layered security solution which includes preventive measures securing both the perimeter, through the cloud, and the end point by having the ability to take proactive steps to cleanse systems at the desktop level.

"SaaS allows small to medium sized businesses to leverage economies of scale and deploy enterprise class solutions at manageable rates.

"Having a service that can protect from both e-mail and Web-borne threats without the costly use of appliances means that every business, regardless of size is able to proactively apply solutions in the cloud and prevent this dangerous code from breaching the network perimeter."

Irwin said business run their Web traffic through Webroot data centres where it will be filtered for suspicious URLs, Web-borne downloads such as Trojans, and vulnerability malware attempting to exploit known software holes.

Webroot managing director for Asia Pac, Charles Heunemann, said the company is a new player in the local arena but in a relatively short space of time, it has climbed to the number four position in terms of the number of domains protected by SaaS e-mail security products.

Heunemann said that Webroot SaaS was using the latest technology to meet customer expectations.

"Australian users have been able to shop around for years. They are educated customers," he said.