What's going on?

Software giant Oracle reported better-than-expected quarterly results earlier this week.

What does this mean?

Oracle knows there�s money in the cloud, so it�s been trying to push more of its existing customers toward its cloud offerings recently. That�s been paying off: demand was up across the software giant�s cloud segment last quarter, including a hefty 36% uptick in its cloud infrastructure business. Overall, Oracle�s cloud revenue was up 19% last quarter versus the same time last year, which helped push overall sales up a better-than-expected 6% � the company�s eighth straight quarter of growth (tweet this).

That�s not the only reason Oracle�s happy: the world�s second-biggest software maker completed its $28 billion purchase of healthcare IT company Cerner last week. The healthcare industry�s been slow to adopt cloud technology, so Oracle will be hoping to benefit this quarter by making inroads in the sector. Investors were on board: they sent Oracle�s stock up 13%.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: No bang for your buck.
Still, Oracle�s results could�ve been better. It does a lot of business overseas like many of its tech peers, and it needs to convert that foreign revenue back to its home currency. Thing is, Oracle said the dollar�s currently so strong that those conversions cut into its revenue by 5% last quarter, and the currency�s only expected to get stronger as interest rate hikes keep coming. There�s one positive, mind you: analysts reckon economic issues like inflation could end up helping Oracle, as more businesses could head to the cloud in a bid to cut costs.

Zooming out: The cloud�s growing.
Oracle�s rival Salesforce is pushing into new areas of the cloud: it announced last week that it�s launching a cloud-based service for creating and selling NFTs which should be widely available by October. That�s interesting timing: folk might�ve spent $2 billion on NFTs last month, but trading activity has already plunged 90% from its September peak.