Microsoft is sharing some big software sales figures at a small business channel partner conference today in New Jersey. For instance: Microsoft’s U.S.-based SMB open license revenues grew 30 percent during the company’s fiscal year 2011, which ended in June. U.S. SMB demand for SQL Server and Office 2010 were even higher. Yes, the numbers a bit dated. But they reinforce some clear trends.

Simply put: For a company that’s under attack on multiple fronts, the Microsoft empire remains pretty darn strong — and growing — in the SMB market. Skeptical? Heather Logan, New York Metro partner territory manager, shared multiple data points during an ASCII conference a few minutes ago. When it comes to U.S. SMB Open Revenues for 2011, ended in June, Microsoft witnessed:

  • Office 2010 sales grew 50 percent;
  • SQL Server sales grew 36 percent; and
  • System Center sales rose 21 percent.

Logan said her there’s plenty of additional upside awaiting channel partners. She noted that Microsoft’s cloud efforts are gaining momentum, with 12,000 ISVs embracing Windows Azure and 10,000 customers on Microsoft Online Services. (Side note: The VAR Guy is somewhat skeptical of those numbers, especially in the Windows Azure space, where Microsoft has allegedly paid some ISVs to port their applications over to Azure.)

SMB Server Software: Still Hot?

And what about the traditional on-premise market? Microsoft is forecasting a 45 percent SMB server spend increase for fiscal 2012, which runs through June 2012. Admittedly, The VAR Guy doesn’t have deep visibility into that 45 percent figure. It sounds like a pure software figure — non-inclusive of third-party hardware. But that’s just a logical guess. And perhaps the figure includes Microsoft’s core business applications — Exchange, SharePoint, Dynamics, Lync, etc.

Either way, Logan shared big numbers with small business VARs today at the ASCII event. And the numbers suggest Microsoft has staying power with SMBs.

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