Cisco kicked off fiscal year 2021 with a 9% revenue decline. But that first-quarter drop wasn’t as steep as investors had expected and that beat, coupled with a relatively sunny Q2 outlook, sent Cisco shares up 9% late Thursday.

Cisco’s net income fell about 11% to $3.2 billion during Q1, which also beat Wall Street’s forecasts. Meanwhile, the vendor reported $11.9 billion in revenue for the quarter, with product revenue down 13% year over year to $8.6 billion and service revenue up 2% to $3.3 billion.

Of the vendor’s business segments, Infrastructure Platforms took the biggest hit, dropping 16% to $6.3 billion, followed by Applications, which fell 8% to $1.4 billion. The Infrastructure Platforms includes Cisco’s data center switches and routers, and it’s always the vendor’s biggest money maker. It’s also the segment hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, Robbins and CFO Kelly Kramer said on the call.

Security revenue, however, grew 6% year over year to $861 million and helped Cisco stave off a much larger revenue decline in Q1. Robbins credited Cisco’s SecureX security platform with driving this segment growth. The platform adds over 1,000 customers each month and has been deployed across more than 4,000 organizations since becoming globally available at the end of June, Robbins said, echoing earlier claims.

“We’ve off to a solid start in fiscal 2021, and I’m proud of these results,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said on the company’s earnings call with investors. “Our teams are executing with excellence and we continue to make steady progress on our shift to a software and subscription driven model. We’re encouraged by the signs of improvement in our business, as we continue to navigate the pandemic and other macro uncertainties.”

Robbins also thanked Cisco employees “for their dedication to our customers and their relentless focus on innovation.” However, he didn’t mention the elephant ushered into the room by the pandemic: massive job cuts.

Back in October, Cisco reportedly began laying off about 9% of its workforce — six months after Robbins pledged not to cut jobs in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The layoffs, first reported by FierceTelecom citing a thread on TheLayoff.com, will impact more than 7,100 employees.

And while Robbins didn’t mention the layoffs on the Q1 call, nor was he asked about the job cuts, anonymous Cisco employees expressed their displeasure on TheLayoff.com. One said the company’s bonuses were also cut in half this year. “Bonus cut in half. Large layoffs. Earnings report was outstanding. OK,” another anonymous employee posted.

A Cisco spokeswoman declined to comment on company bonuses or how many employees will be affected by the job cuts. “Over the coming weeks and months, Cisco will increase our investments in key business areas that will drive customer satisfaction and partner profitability going forward and reduce investments in others,” the spokeswoman said. “We will be restructuring parts of our business as a result.”

Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2021, Cisco executives forecast flat revenue or up to a 2% decline, and 74 cents to 76 cents in adjusted earnings per share. This also beat analysts’ Q2 forecasts, which projected a 3% revenue decline and 73 cents in adjusted earnings per share.