"Although the products available before have demonstrated the benefits of outsourcing e-mail security, they offered more of a managed service experience for the customer.

"But users of SaaS want the usability, features, functionality and richness of software and the transparency and performance of on-premises or appliance solutions; we are now in a position to meet those expectations."

Software as a Service (SaaS) is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 65 per cent and is set to top $506 million in the Australian market by 2010, according to Springboard Research.

Earlier this year analyst firm Frost and Sullivan released a report that was even more optimistic.

The report estimates the Australian market for managed security services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.6 per cent between 2006 and 2012 reaching $843.1 million.