IBM is to become the first company to host private regions of the Second Life virtual world on its own servers.

Linden Lab, which created Second Life, is aiming to open up the virtual worlds in a new direction for those who want to use it for collaboration and tele-conferencing.

Employees from IBM will be able to use the public areas of Second Life and also have access to private areas which will be hosted behind IBM's corporate firewall. In the private areas employees will be free to interact with other workers.

Colin Parris, IBM's vice-president for digital convergence, told Reuters: "We see a need for an enterprise-ready solution that offers the same content creation capabilities but adds new levels of security and scalability."

The Second Life world is increasingly being used by organisations instead of regular meeting and conference calls according to Linden Labs. However, there have been concerns about the security and stability of the platform.

Second Life is an internet-based virtual world which was launched in 2004, in which users create personal avatars to interact with others and trade virtual items and services.