Cisco’s Q2 results this week highlighted strong demand in some key growth areas of its business, as the Silicon Valley stalwart did a little better than analyst expectations on revenue and EPS.
Overall revenue growth was 11% y-on-y, an improvement on the 5% we saw in Q1 (see Cisco getting back on track). Once again the more mature solution areas in switching and routing couldn’t keep up with the faster-growing bits of Cisco’s portfolio. Service provider video revenues stood out again with a 23% rise in the quarter, reflecting the ever-increasing volumes of video traffic across the Internet, while Wireless also did well with a 25% increase.
EMEA did OK, with 7% revenue growth, and Cisco echoed the legions of tech companies highlighting the relatively robust conditions in Northern Europe and the UK, compared to more deeply troubled Southern Europe. The UK had a particularly good quarter, with 13% growth, but Cisco’s John Chambers was keen to underline in his comments to analysts that, in terms of market conditions and outlook, he was very much speaking of “relative” robustness.