Third of UK Microsoft partners selling cloud

Traditional software sales still going strong, Microsoft says, but cloud growth is soaring

Microsoft has said more than a third of its active UK partner base is selling cloud solutions, up from just six per cent less than two years ago.

Cloud is one of the software giant's key technology focus areas, along with mobile, social and big data. But at its Worldwide Partner Conference in the summer of 2013, the firm's chief operating officer Kevin Turner admitted just three per cent of its global partner base was selling cloud actively. At the same time, in the UK, the figure stood at six per cent.

But less than two years on, the UK figure now stands at 35 per cent, according to Microsoft's UK channel chief Linda Rendleman (pictured).

Rendleman started her new role just over a year ago and one of her key focus areas was to travel across the UK, promoting cloud to partners of all sizes in all regions.

She said the initiative was paying off.

"Over the past couple of years [partner cloud sales figures] have grown very nicely," she said. "At least 35 per cent of our active partners are selling cloud today. It has grown quite a bit and partners are really trying to take advantage of the business they have and know today, but also build for the future. We find a lot more partners interested in building IP because they want to build services around [cloud technology].

"They are doing both [on-premise and cloud software] because one of the benefits Microsoft offers is that we offer hybrid solutions - it's at the customers' pace. If they want to keep certain elements of their business on-premise, they can do that, and if they want to move elements to the cloud, they can do that. Partners that can offer both of those through Microsoft - that is an advantage because a lot of our competitors only have a cloud offering."

Last month, Microsoft took the wraps off Windows 10 and revealed that for the first time it would be available as a service, raising questions as to whether the channel might be cut out of the sales process.

Rendleman insisted that the as-a-service model would present big opportunities for the channel.

"The partners I have spoken to are excited because they can build services around it - it is not just about the sale of the product, it is about how can they service the product and build services which complement it so it becomes ongoing rather just a one-time thing," she said.

"All the partners I have spoken to are really excited about it - not so much as a comparison to what has been in the past - but more as the opportunity that it brings because of the functionality and that is as a service so it offers them the opportunity to build additional services around it."