SMEs mired in virtualisation 'muddy waters'

Small businesses are becoming confused by the appearance of providers offering 'virtualisation' services, according to IT experts.

Researchers at IT Lab believe that a large number of small firms are being sucked into contracts which claim to save them money by virtually hosting their networks.

Virtualisation has become increasingly popular in recent years as it lets one server do the job of multiple servers, allowing one computer to host different operating systems and reducing the need for additional hardware.

The managing director of IT Lab, Dom Monkhouse, commented: "Unfortunately, recent announcements in the press by ISPs (internet service providers) and hosting providers are muddying the water."

"They are offering hardware redundancy and high availability for free as a result of virtualisation."

In reality, he added, the 'virtualisation' was more often than not invalid, as it was based on physical hardware - costing businesses more in the long-run.

Last week, research by the Demos research group suggested that small enterprises could benefit from utilising Web 2.0 platforms such as Facebook.