Silicon Valley-based data center storage equipment vendor NetApp has closed fiscal year 2012, reporting a big annual jump in revenue but a drop in net income and earnings per share.

NetApp’s full-year 2012 revenue was US$6.23bn, up 22% from fiscal year 2011. Net income for fiscal 2012 was $605m, or $1.58 earnings per share (EPS), which is down from income results of the previous year, when the company reported a net income of $673m, or $1.71 EPS.

The company’s president and CEO Tom Georgens said Q4 FY2012 was ninth consecutive quarter NetApp saw more than 20% year-over-year revenue growth.

“Our ability to generate cash remains robust as the fourth quarter was our best ever quarter in terms of cash flow from operations," Georgens said.

NetApp provides storage solutions for a variety of enterprise applications, for virtualized server and desktop systems, as well as for private and public clouds. A major cloud play for the company is FlexPod, a full infrastructure solution for cloud deployment using its storage hardware and Cisco’s servers and switches, virtualized on VMware.

NetApp used its earnings announcement to highlight that more than 850 customers had deployed FlexPod. During fiscal 2012, FlexPod partners launched an entry-level version of the solution, as well as a version validated for the Microsoft private cloud architecture.

Another highlight was a deployment of NetApp technology by the Softbank Group, a major Japanese telecommunications company, which used it to provide internal and external cloud services.

Softbank provided free or discounted cloud services to businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March 2011. It also extended its internal virtual desktop services to 14,000 of its employees who were displaced by the disaster.