Among EMC's product lines, sales of the high-end Symmetrix storage systems were flat, while the midrange Clariion line had 12 percent higher revenue than a year earlier, due partly to the launch of the Clariion CX4 line in August, said Chief Financial Officer David Goulden. Network-attached storage revenue rose 40 percent, with EMC gaining market share, he said.

The company's content management and archiving business had flat revenue, and EMC expects that market to continue to be affected by weakness in the overall enterprise software business, Goulden said. But revenue from professional services rose 23 percent from a year earlier, he said.

Tucci said he was pleased with the performance of EMC's VMware business, which on Tuesday reported third-quarter results above expectations and stuck to its earlier forecast for the fourth quarter. Despite a reorganization and hiring freeze at the virtualization software company, Tucci said EMC has no plans to spin off VMware.

In addition, EMC plans to strengthen its OEM (original-equipment manufacturer) relationship with Dell, which accounts for more than 10 percent of EMC's revenue. The partnership may have gotten offtrack after Dell acquired storage-area network vendor EqualLogic earlier this year, Tucci said.