Riding big-time momentum from its 45% cloud-revenue growth rate, its industry-cloud acceleration stemming from its Cerner acquisition, and its multi-cloud deals with Microsoft and AWS, Oracle has leapfrogged SAP and claimed the #5 spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings.
While SAP is performing very well in the cloud — last quarter, its cloud revenue was up 34% and exceeded its on-premises revenue for the first time — Oracle’s ascension to the #5 spot is a recognition of Larry Ellison’s company delivering on all the primary factors I use in determining who sits where on the Cloud Wars Top 10:
- Growth rate
- Revenue volume
- Customer-oriented products, services, and positioning
- Range of impact on customers’ business transformations
- Aggressiveness of industry-specific strategy and execution
- Aggressiveness of overall vision
- Enthusiastic customer references
On September 13, Oracle disclosed that its cloud revenue for its first fiscal quarter, ended August 31, was up 45% to $3.6 billion, with its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure revenue up 52% (58% in constant currency).
That makes Oracle’s cloud revenue about 15% larger than the $3.12 billion in cloud revenue SAP posted for the quarter ended June 30. While SAP turned in an excellent growth rate of 34% for that period, Oracle’s was almost one-third higher at 45%.
On the industry-cloud side, shortly after the Cerner acquisition was completed in early June, I described how that triggered another move upward by Oracle in this Cloud Wars Minute episode: Industry Cloud Top 10: Oracle Jumps to No. 2.
For context, let’s take a look at the latest Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings, to which I’ve added each company’s most-recent quarterly cloud revenue and cloud growth rate.
CLOUD WARS TOP 10
- Microsoft: $25 billion, 29%
- AWS: $19.7 billion, 33%
- Google Cloud: $6.3 billion, 36%
- Salesforce: $7.72 billion, 22%
- Oracle: $3.6 billion, 45%
- SAP: $3.12 billion, 34%
- ServiceNow: $1.66 billion, 25%
- Workday: $1.37 billion, 23%
- IBM: $5.9 billion, 24%
- Snowflake: $466 million, 83%
Final Thoughts
I’ve projected that the Cloud Wars Top 10 vendors will generate combined calendar 2022 cloud revenue of $300 billion, which means that for calendar 2023, it’s within the realm of possibility that they’ll reach $400 billion (although $375 billion’s more likely). The revenue numbers are big. The growth rates are stunning. Most important of all, the customer demand shows no signs of slacking off.
As the greatest growth market the world has ever known rolls on, we’ll continue to see some companies surge for a year or two, and then others seize the momentum and outpace these remarkable competitors. For now, Oracle is in the ascendancy and we’ll be keeping a close eye on Larry Ellison and company to see if they can maintain the blistering pace they’re setting in the Cloud Wars.
