According to NetBenefit, Ultra-V supports routine maintenance activities - such as security updates and patching - that can be carried out to the host servers without customers experiencing downtime.

Based on Release 2 of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008, the platform follows the launch of NetBenefit's Hyper-V based virtual private servers released earlier this year.

In use, Ultra-V is said to deliver a high availability virtualisation platform whilst maintaining the customisation and scalability usually associated with dedicated servers.

Colin Bell, NetBenefit's managing director, said that many of the firm's customers recognise the benefits that virtualisation offers in terms of flexibility, speed of deployment and competitive pricing.

"The Ultra-V platform offers all of this with impressive failover capabilities, scalability and performance backed up by a 24x7 technical support that is at the centre of our managed hosting service", he said.

"NetBenefit's strategic alliance with Microsoft has led to our senior engineers taking part in both the Hyper-V early adopter programme and the Windows 2008 technology adoption programme", he added.

"When it comes to virtualisation, we believe the Ultra-V platform really is the ultimate in scalable, flexible and secure managed hosting solutions."