"The perception from the techies is that a managed service provider can't do as well as we can, but now the techies are doing more high-value tasks such as e-mail and bandwidth management. They are fine-tuning instead of just keeping the lid on a problem," Clarke said.

Frost & Sullivan security analyst James Turner said increased adoption of managed services is likely in the next three years as one way to overcome the spam problem.

"Spam is most definitely an issue for business and it's a long way from being fixed," he said adding that one of the major banks manages 4TB of e-mail a day of which 60 percent is spam.

"We're talking big numbers here. A complete revision of e-mail architecture is required to help restore faith in an area of communication that could be so much better than it is."

Another MessageLabs customer is Bank of Queensland IT security manager Grant Slender, who says spam is like unclean water going through your infrastructure.