Sage, the UK's biggest accounting software supplier, has withdrawn an early version its web software product after less than a month due to security concerns.

Although Sage Live was only launched earlier this month Sage said it withdrew the product earlier this week while it addressed security problems with the software.

Sage Live is the company's first move into Internet-based -- also known as cloud computing -- which is tipped as the future of business software.

Clive Gray, head of Sage Live said: 'Security is an absolute priority for us but as with any Beta [version of a product], we do realise that there are still some issues that we need to address and our Sage Live teams are continuing to deal with these in order to improve the experience for our customers.'

'We’re passionate about getting this right for customers so while we investigate the issue we’ve decided to take the website down as a precaution.'

Meanwhile Kashflow, the online accounting software company, said it has hit a record number of monthly subscribers reflecting the growing popularity of cloud computing especially among small businesses.

As the economic downturn deepens cloud computing is growing in popularily, particularly for smaller companies who are attracted to the payment terms of the new services -- typically a monthly fee rather than a annual licence fee.

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