IBM’s cloud revenue growing at 23% annual clip

IBM reported 2Q18 revenue of $20.0 billion, up 4 percent (up 2 percent adjusting for currency) and GAAP EPS from continuing operations of $2.61.

“We delivered strong revenue and profit growth in the quarter, underscoring IBM’s progress and momentum in the emerging, high-value segments of the IT industry,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer. “More clients are engaging IBM on their journey to the cloud, and deploying IBM Cloud, Watson AI, analytics, blockchain and security solutions.

Some highlights:

• Strategic imperatives revenue over the last 12 months was $39.0 billion, up 15 percent (up 12 percent adjusting for currency). 
• Total cloud revenue over the last 12 months was $18.5 billion, up 23 percent (up 20 percent adjusting for currency), with $8.2 billion from hardware, software and services to enable IBM clients to implement hybrid cloud solutions across public, private and multi-cloud environments, and $10.4 billion delivered as a service. 
• The annual exit run rate for as-a-service revenue increased in the quarter to $11.1 billion, up 26 percent (up 24 percent adjusting for currency).
• Revenues from analytics increased 7 percent to $5.4 billion (up 5 percent adjusting for currency); revenues from mobile increased 5 percent to $1.3 billion (up 3 percent adjusting for currency); and revenues from security increased 81 percent to $1.0 billion (up 79 percent adjusting for currency).
• As-a-service annual exit run rate for cloud revenue of $11.1 billion in the quarter, up 26 percent year to year (up 24 percent adjusting for currency)