The credit crunch could drive banks and businesses to get their security from the cloud.

Investment bank Rothschild uses software-as-a-service (SaaS) company ScanSafe for its Web browsing security and MessageLabs for its e-mail.

Web and e-mail traffic for about 2,500 bank staff worldwide is sent through the companies' data centers, where it is screened and filtered for malware and viruses before being sent on to Rothschild's computer systems.

And Edmund Comber, manager of IT security and technical development at investment bank Rothschild, told ZDNet Asia sister site silicon.com that economic uncertainty means businesses may favor the predictable pricing model of SaaS compared to the unpredictable cost of running security systems entirely in-house.

"For many companies it makes sense to push more business towards the SaaS model, where the service provided is not core to the business.

"You know the cost is x amount regardless and you do not have to buy any hardware that will need continual patching and maintenance.[Saas vendors] can do it better and more efficiently, they have the expertise," he said.