EMC's services business carried it higher in the second quarter, as the storage maker was able to hit the high side of analyst expectations.

EMC churned out $1.48 billion for the quarter ended June 30. This marks a 7 percent rise over the $1.39 billion posted in the same period a year ago.

For what it's worth, analysts had a consensus estimate of $1.46 billion in revenue for EMC.

Net income rose to $82 million in the quarter compared to $1 million last year.

EMC CEO Joe Tucci put his usual flair on hold when characterizing the quarter. "The two words that best describe EMC's second quarter performance are solid and balanced," he said in a statement.

EMC pointed to sequential gains in both its hardware and software businesses, but it's the year-on-year compares that usually provide a better picture of a company's health.

EMC has been trying to drive software sales hard over the last year, but app revenue came in rather flat. EMC posted $321 million in software revenue this Q2 compared to $320 million the previous year. Perhaps the acquisition of Legato will help turn things around.

Storage systems revenue did climb higher from $779 million last year to $803 million. But it was the services business that performed the best. Services revenue hit $328 million this quarter compared to the $251 million in last year's Q2. EMC has found a way to wring more money out of its customer base in these tough times.

EMC expects revenue between $1.45 billion and $1.50 billion in its third quarter. Shares of EMC were dropping at the time of this report - down 4.25 percent to $10.60. ®