IBM revenues boosted by cloud performance

As more businesses are turning to the cloud for solutions, cloud computing is fast becoming a core growth area for businesses worldwide – sometimes at the expense of more traditional IT.

IBM has announced in its 2012 first quarter report released this week that its total cloud revenue has doubled over the last year in all areas such as private cloud, public cloud and industry based solutions. According the 2011 annual report, it currently has more than 1 million enterprise application users working in the IBM cloud.

Cloud computing is now among the four core growth areas for IBM, expected to drive $7 billion in revenue by 2015 in hardware, software and services, alongside growth markets, business analytics and Smarter Planet, an initiative which has grown by 18 percent in the last year, aiming to make many aspects of our world ‘smarter’ through interconnected, intelligent systems.

A spokeswoman for the company said IBM was unable to breakdown specific information about cloud computing and how the UK are contributing to the growth of the company.

While IBM has seen a positive growth throughout, it has suffered losses in its more traditional business solutions. Revenue for its hardware services were down by 7 percent, an indication that cloud computing is becoming more widely used among businesses worldwide.

IBM is not alone in reaping the benefits of cloud, data storage specialist EMC has also reported a higher quarterly profit today due to increasing demand for cloud computing.

Joe Tucci, EMC CEO said, "We are in a time of unprecedented IT and business transformation, propelled by the benefits of cloud computing, Big Data and trust,"   

The company has said it was well on its way to achieving 2014 consolidated revenue of more than $28 billion.