EMC's fourth-quarter revenue from software licenses jumped 20 percent, outpacing the 15 percent growth in the storage systems business at EMC, whose rivals include IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Network Appliance Inc. Revenue from professional services and systems maintenance, a smaller business segment than the other two, grew 27 percent.

EMC's North American business posted a 16 percent sales gain, compared with 23 percent growth overseas.

EMC offered its initial financial forecast for 2008, with expectations for revenue growth of 13 percent to $15 billion, and 14 percent profit growth to $1.04 per share, excluding one-time items and gains.

The revenue target beat analysts' forecast of $14.7 billion, but Avian Securities' Bryson said he and many other observers had expected EMC to forecast a slightly higher 2008 annual profit.

On a conference call with analysts, Joe Tucci, EMC's chairman, president and chief executive, said EMC was cautious in its profit outlook because of recent economic volatility and fears that it could hurt technology spending.

"Today, we have not seen much of a down side, but as we go forward, I think being cautious is the order of the day," he said.

EMC's stock has lost about a third of its value over the past three months after hitting as high as $25.47 in October following the August debut of VMware's stock in one of the tech sector's most highly anticipated IPOs since Google's. EMC, whose stock now closely tracks that of VMware, sold a 10 percent stake in the firm. Its software allows a single computer to function like multiple machines.