San Francisco, Feb 15 (IANS): Global networking major Cisco reported a revenue of $11.9 billion for the second quarter that ended January 27, pocketing a net income of $3.1 billion -- up 6 per cent from the second quarter of fiscal year 2017.

Cisco forecasts three-five per cent growth in revenue for the third quarter of 2018.

"We had a great quarter which demonstrates that our strategy is working. Our business is growing, we have a fantastic innovation pipeline, our balance sheet is strong and we have a team that's executing incredibly well," Chuck Robbins, Chairman and CEO, Cisco, said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"The network is more critical to business success than ever, and our new intent-based networking portfolio has great momentum including the fastest ramping new product in our history," Robbins added.

"Product revenue performance reflected solid growth in applications and security, which each increased 6 per cent. Infrastructure platforms increased by 2 per cent," the company said.

Cisco recently acquired BroadSoft Inc. that offers cloud calling and contact centre solutions.

On January 24 it announced to acquire Skyport Systems Inc. that provides Cloud-managed, hyper-converged systems that run and protect business critical applications.

"Q2 was a great quarter with 3 per cent revenue growth and strong margins and cash flow," said Kelly Kramer, CFO of Cisco.

"We continue to make progress as we shift the business toward more software and recurring revenue," Kramer added.