Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are focusing their IT spending on security and cost effective measures such as VoIP, according to new research.

A report from IDC highlights that SMEs are increasingly becoming concerned with cost effective initiatives due to the current uncertain state of the economy.

Measures such as server and storage consolidation, system virtualisation, storage area network and network-attached storage are all being implemented as SMEs strive to gain efficiencies, according to the analyst.

Research conducted by the company shows that 12.9 per cent of companies have invested or are planning to invest in all of these areas, while over a quarter of small businesses already use VoIP. A further 17.6 per cent intend to deploy it in the next 12 months.

Giuliana Folco, research vice-president of European industry solutions at IDC, said: "Vendors should market infrastructure technologies as solutions, emphasizing the specific SMB needs that they can help to address, such as compliance requirements, cost savings and flexibility."

Meanwhile, it was recently reported on Vnunet.com that business communications firm Colt has asserted SMEs need to take a more thorough approach to securing critical business information.