IT support executives should reconsider their priorities in the modern world, with the provision of servers becoming a lot more popular as requirements in business continue to expand, it is said.

Phil Turnbull, the product manager at Hostway, stated that demands on small businesses in IT are growing and they are expected to do more with the same resources they have had for a long time, meaning that server services are becoming more important on a daily basis.

He noted that small and medium-sized companies may lack the ability to host everything in-house, so should take outsourcing into serious consideration as it would need less maintenance and commitment.

Mr Turnbull added: "Although this will usually mean switching to a pay-monthly model, companies will benefit from enterprise-level support and infrastructure, as well as potentially paying only for what they use."

According to the International Data Corporation, the IT industry's expansion to virtualisation will grow exponentially during 2009.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.