But Fusion sales are still small compared to those of Oracle's other software lines, which it has committed to support for many years. That's not altruism on Oracle's part, since those customers will continue to pay lucrative maintenance fees.

Still, Oracle made a concerted effort Monday to reassure these customers that their investments are safe.

Leone spoke on a panel with other Oracle applications executives, each of whom described their product's recent improvements, road map and place in the Oracle universe.

Oracle's Siebel CRM (customer-relationship-management) software "continues to play a very significant role in our customers' strategies," because of its functionality for vertical industries, said Anthony Lye, senior vice president of cloud applications strategy.

"For us, the obvious thing to do is continue to innovate on the application" as well as try to lower the cost of ownership, he said. "It will maintain its position as a great, great product for many, many years to come."