Cloud keeps looking good for IBM, and flash storage could help in the months ahead

Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Jordan Novet.

IBM reported $23.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter of the year, down more than 5 percent year over year, and $3.03 billion in net income, down 1.1 percent. Analysts had been expecting more than $24 billion in revenue. The company said cloud-computing revenue was up more than 70 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2013, following an 80 percent revenue gain in the previous quarter.

Revenue from software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products, including Tivoli software, were up 65 percent, Mark Loughridge, senior vice president and chief financial officer for finance and enterprise transformation, said during a Thursday call with investors. Revenue coming from enterprises setting up their own private cloud with IBM Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings was up “more than 75 percent,” Loughridge told investors…

As was the case last quarter, Loughridge didn’t break out exact revenue for the products, so we have no real idea where IBM’s cloud business stands. Revenue decreases came in several categories, including hardware. Power Systems server sales dropped more than 30 percent year over year…

Read more from the source @ http://gigaom.com/2013/04/18/cloud-keeps-looking-good-for-ibm-and-flash-storage-could-help-in-the-months-ahead/