By sector, IBM's software revenue totalled $5.8 billion, up 13 percent. Total services revenue was $15.1 billion, up by 8 percent. The Systems and Technology group raked in $4.5 billion, or about 4 percent growth. One particularly bright spot was growth in IBM's Power Systems sales, which were up 15 percent.

Other IBM initiatives seem to be bearing fruit. Business analytics revenue is up by 19 percent. Smarter Planet initiatives are up by 50 percent, and cloud revenue year to date is now double what IBM made in that arena for all of fiscal 2010.

Because of this growth, IBM has raised its earnings expectation for fiscal 2011, to at least $13.35 per share from $13.25.

The IDG News Service