EMC Sees IT Storage Recovery

IT solution providers looking for sales of IT storage solutions to recover after the deep recession of 2009 need not look any further than EMC’s (NYSE:EMC) earnings report released in April 2010.

The technology giant saw 28 percent growth year over year for its Symmetrix line, and 32 percent growth for midrange products including Celerra, Centera, and Atmos. Data Domain and Avmar deduplication backup and recovery products fared even better, each growing more than 100 percent year over year.

“We think growth in IT spending and our target marketplace in 2010 will end up at the higher end of our projected ranges,” CFO David Goulden told analysts during the company’s earnings conference call.

Executives credited information growth as a key driver in the sales growth of EMC’s storage and infrastructure product lines.

“We also saw customers beginning new projects in their existing traditional infrastructures,” he said. In “…both of these was continued growth in the number of customers that are moving to virtual data center infrastructures. All three of these drivers benefited us in the quarter as EMC is a trusted partner not only for customer’s requirements today but also going forward as they embark on their own journeys to a private cloud.”

Executives also pointed to a big sales win over NetApp against a global online content services provider. In addition, they said that EMC’s continuing partnership with Dell grew stronger during the quarter as the company expanded it to include more midtier products.

“Channel partners including Dell are extremely important to our ongoing success in the mid-tier and we’re very focused on expanding these partnerships,” said Goulden.

EMC reported first quarter consolidated revenue of $3.9 billion, a 23 percent increase over the same period a year ago. Net income for the quarter increased 92 percent from the same period a year ago to $373 million.

Shares closed April 23 at nearly $20, up from the approximately $19 where they were trading on April 19.