Archived Content
The following content is from an older version of this website, and may not display correctly.Worldwide IT spending is on the rise, although a slow one, predicts market-research firm Gartner. Slow growth in the near future is attributed to continually tight budgets in several industry verticals, including manufacturing and financial services, which "will not see IT budgets recover to pre-2008 levels before 2012 or 2013", said Peter Sonergaard, senior VP and global head of research at Gartner.
According to a new report the firm released early this week, worldwide enterprise IT spending is forecast to reach $2.5 trillion in 2011, a 3.1-percent increase from 2010, which is on track to reach a total of $2.4 trillion (itself a 2.4-percent jump from 2009).
An upward trend was evidenced by third-quarter earnings reports from major IT vendors this and last week. Last week's report by Intel of a record third-quarter revenue was followed this week by reports of upward leaps in quarterly revenue figures by IBM and EMC.
IBM's hardware business grows 10 percent
IBM reported $3.5bn net income ($2.82 earnings per share) on $24.3bn in sales for the quarter. Revenue was up three percent and net income was up 12 percent year-over-year. EPS was up 18 percent.
IBM Chairman, President and CEO Samuel Palmisano said the company grew revenue across its hardware, software and services businesses, expanding margins and increasing EPS at a double-digit rate. "We achieved excellent performance in our growth markets unit, reflecting sustained investments through the downturn and the continued strength of the infrastructure build-out in these countries," he said in a statement.
IBM's hardware business totaled $4.3bn in sales during the quarter ÔÇô up 10 percent year-over-year. Within this segment, System x server revenues increased 30 percent and System z mainframe revenues increased 15 percent compared to the third quarter of 2009. Revenue from the Power Systems product line decreased 13 percent.
The company's services revenues grew two percent and software revenue grew one percent, which includes the divested product-lifecycle-management operations.
EMC expects cloud to continue driving double-digit revenue growth
The Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company reported $472.5m in net income, attributable to the EMC brand (it also owns the security firm RSA and a majority stake in the virtualization technology provider VMware), and $0.22 earnings per share ÔÇô up 57 percent year-over-year. Consolidated third-quarter revenue was $4.21bn ÔÇô a 20-percent increase from third quarter of 2009.
EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci said in a statement the company was confident it would continue to produce double-digit growth rates in the long-term future, putting faith in cloud computing as key driver of growth.
"Customers are embracing EMC in increasing numbers as a trusted partner for their cloud computing build-outs," he said. "To lead this transformational IT wave, EMC remains focused on ' and is taking share in ' markets that are growing considerably faster than IT as a whole."
The company observed strong demand and double-digit revenue growth from sales of its high-end Symmetrix storage products, with sales up 23 percent year-over-year. Double-digit growth was seen in sales of its mid-tier storage portfolio as well, which brought 22 percent more revenue than it did during the third quarter one year ago. EMC's mid-tier storage portfolio includes Clariion, Celrra, Centera, Data Domain, Avamar and Atmos products.
Revenue from EMC's security business RSA grew 22 percent year-over-year and VMware revenue was up 46 percent.
A major highlight for the quarter was completion of EMC's acquisition of database software company Greenplum and creation of a new Data Computing Products Division, which launched its first product (a database appliance called EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance) around mid-October.
According to a new report the firm released early this week, worldwide enterprise IT spending is forecast to reach $2.5 trillion in 2011, a 3.1-percent increase from 2010, which is on track to reach a total of $2.4 trillion (itself a 2.4-percent jump from 2009).
An upward trend was evidenced by third-quarter earnings reports from major IT vendors this and last week. Last week's report by Intel of a record third-quarter revenue was followed this week by reports of upward leaps in quarterly revenue figures by IBM and EMC.
IBM's hardware business grows 10 percent
IBM reported $3.5bn net income ($2.82 earnings per share) on $24.3bn in sales for the quarter. Revenue was up three percent and net income was up 12 percent year-over-year. EPS was up 18 percent.
IBM Chairman, President and CEO Samuel Palmisano said the company grew revenue across its hardware, software and services businesses, expanding margins and increasing EPS at a double-digit rate. "We achieved excellent performance in our growth markets unit, reflecting sustained investments through the downturn and the continued strength of the infrastructure build-out in these countries," he said in a statement.
IBM's hardware business totaled $4.3bn in sales during the quarter ÔÇô up 10 percent year-over-year. Within this segment, System x server revenues increased 30 percent and System z mainframe revenues increased 15 percent compared to the third quarter of 2009. Revenue from the Power Systems product line decreased 13 percent.
The company's services revenues grew two percent and software revenue grew one percent, which includes the divested product-lifecycle-management operations.
EMC expects cloud to continue driving double-digit revenue growth
The Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company reported $472.5m in net income, attributable to the EMC brand (it also owns the security firm RSA and a majority stake in the virtualization technology provider VMware), and $0.22 earnings per share ÔÇô up 57 percent year-over-year. Consolidated third-quarter revenue was $4.21bn ÔÇô a 20-percent increase from third quarter of 2009.
EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci said in a statement the company was confident it would continue to produce double-digit growth rates in the long-term future, putting faith in cloud computing as key driver of growth.
"Customers are embracing EMC in increasing numbers as a trusted partner for their cloud computing build-outs," he said. "To lead this transformational IT wave, EMC remains focused on ' and is taking share in ' markets that are growing considerably faster than IT as a whole."
The company observed strong demand and double-digit revenue growth from sales of its high-end Symmetrix storage products, with sales up 23 percent year-over-year. Double-digit growth was seen in sales of its mid-tier storage portfolio as well, which brought 22 percent more revenue than it did during the third quarter one year ago. EMC's mid-tier storage portfolio includes Clariion, Celrra, Centera, Data Domain, Avamar and Atmos products.
Revenue from EMC's security business RSA grew 22 percent year-over-year and VMware revenue was up 46 percent.
A major highlight for the quarter was completion of EMC's acquisition of database software company Greenplum and creation of a new Data Computing Products Division, which launched its first product (a database appliance called EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance) around mid-October.