Cisco Systems has reported a decline in revenue for a fifth straight quarter, as enterprise clients spent less on its network infrastructure products for offices due to the rise of remote working.
Cisco chief financial officer Richard Herren said on a call with analysts that the infrastructure platforms unit, whose sales fell 3 percent in the quarter, took the biggest hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s total revenue fell slightly to $11.96 billion in the second quarter ended Jan. 23, from $12.01 billion a year earlier.

The remote working trend boosted demand for the company’s videoconferencing platform Webex, virtual private network AnyConnect and cybersecurity products.

Revenue from the company’s services business rose 2 percent to $3.39 billion.

Cisco said it expects third-quarter revenue to increase between 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent, which implies a range of $12.4 billion to $12.64 billion compared with analysts’ estimates of $12.35 billion.

A recent Gartner report said IT spending is projected to total $3.9 trillion in 2021, an increase of 6.2 percent from 2020. Worldwide IT spending declined 3.2 percent in 2020 as CIOs prioritized spending on technology and services that were deemed mission-critical during the initial stages of the pandemic, Gartner report said.