Financial results from two important industry bellweather companies, Cisco and Intel bode well for the state of tech spending in general and the data centre industry as a result.

Cisco’s recent results not only beat analyst’s expectations but were also the first period of growth for four quarters.  This is of interest to the data centre industry as Cisco router’s and networking equipment are used by the enterprise and wholesale sectors alike and the company is very much seen as a leading indicator of the technology sector in general.  Cisco’s green coloured hardware is a common site across all data centres.

John Chambers, Cisco CEO reported that the results “provide a clear indication that we are entering the second phase of the economic recovery” and furthermore that “during the quarter we saw dramatic across-the-board acceleration and sequential improvement in our business in almost all areas”.

Cisco’s results, released in February follow on from the Intel results in January which also comfortably beat analyst’s expectations when the chipmaker, whose chips are in 4 out of evcery 5 computers sold, reported profits of $2.3bn, a whopping 875% higher than the same period a year ago when company’s profits were collapsing in the face of the oncoming recession (the company made $234m in that quarter), so quite a dramatic comparison.