Highlighting the company's security features for cloud-based applications, CEO Larry Ellison said on the company's financial conference call that "the growing popularity of cloud computing gives us a great opportunity to replace SAP as the number-one applications company in the world."

Oracle has made cloud-oriented acquisitions including a $1.5 billion deal for CRM maker RightNow Technologies and a $1.9 billion deal for human-resources software vendor Taleo.

Despite the better-than-expected results, however, analysts did not completely buy the line about cloud computing.

"It's faux cloud, they've made some acquisitions to try to be cloud," said stock commentator Jim Cramer in a for financial news site TheStreet.com.

Meanwhile, in a move that underlines declining profit margins on hardware, Hewlett-Packard Wednesday announced the into a new unit called the Printing and Personal Systems Group. Company officials said by streamlining costs, the move would drive profitable growth for the entire company.