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More businesses invested in network security technology in 2008 than in the previous year, according to new research.

IT support sales increased by eight per cent worldwide last year compared to 2007, according to a new report by Infonetics Research.

Firms across all market segments are investing in IT support technology, the report shows.

The report states: "Virtually every vendor we talked to said their business remained strong in the fourth quarter and expects 2009 to be an okay year.

"While that's not great in a vacuum, many industries would be ecstatic to experience an okay 2009."

The new forecast follows the publication of a joint report by bMighty and InformationWeek Analytics earlier this week.

It suggests that having an effective disaster recovery plan in place will help businesses to minimise losses following an attack on their IT system.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).