Oracle finally succumbs to the cloud

Applications will be charged for based on a per-user, per-month pricing model, however it was unclear whether all the apps and services were available now.

Ellison touted one major advantage that the new Oracle Cloud had over its competitors: security.

"We have very comprehensive, fine-grained security in the system," he said. "Your database is not co-mingled with other customers' data. That's a big difference between our cloud and others."

He lambasted the practice of multi-tenancy in the cloud. While many tout the benefits of it with lower costs and the ability to upgrade a multitude of customers at once, Ellison argued otherwise.

"We think a modern cloud lets you decide when you want to upgrade, not the cloud vendor telling you when you have to upgrade," he said.

"We think that's a very big deal. We'll allow you, within reason, to decide when to upgrade." This meant Oracle giving customers a one-year window of opportunity to upgrade.

Ellison used the webcast to make another dig at rival SAP. He claimed the company would not have any cloud offerings available until 2020.

"I don't think they will make it. Our applications will have eight years of maturing. 2020 - a terrible year to get to the cloud."

Until recently Ellison was dismissive of the cloud, but in a recent interview he said he could no longer resist the word "cloud".

"They don't call it internet anymore," he said. "They call it cloud computing. I like the word cloud' because it's a charismatic brand."