As Microsoft prepares today to announce its new online email security product, Online Security for Exchange, another firm which has been doing on-demand security for a while, F-Secure, launched a new version of its Protection Service for Business (PSB) solution.

PBS is specifically designed for smaller firms which may not have the in-house expertise and resources to manage on-premise security products themselves, according to F-Secure

Version 4.0, which was announced today, features speed and performance improvements and new email and spam protection, according to the firm.

"For a smaller company the Protection Service for Business subscription-based solution is like having a specialist security workforce armed with the latest technology - at a fraction of the cost of hiring IT staff and buying the technology," argued Juha Ollila, vice president of corporate business at F-Secure.

Customers can buy the PSB as a service, or for the Standard version, buy it in a traditional license model.

The software-as-a-service model is gaining increasing acceptance among firms, as it can free up IT resources to concentrate on more strategic objectives.

F-Secure will be hoping that prospective customers are suitably scared intop buying the service, by recent vendor research showing massive growth in malware over 2008.