[THE INVESTOR] In the pre-cloud era, access to a company’s data may was quite a laborious task. A chief executive might have had to send emails back and forth just to acquire necessary data such as those related to sales.

Now emerging cloud services allow easy access to analytic data, even on the go.

By simply using a mobile app, a company chief is able to get information that span a broad range of queries such as how many new employees are currently needed and analysis on the anticipated financial status for the next quarter following new employment.

With the development and widespread use of cloud systems, companies -- both big and small -- can now use omnipresent cloud services, saving a massive amount of costs usually required to install hardware and software solutions.

In the future, cloud services are going to offer big opportunities for companies across a range of industries, said Oracle chief executive Mark Hurd, who was in Seoul from July 14-15.

“This change (being caused by cloud services) in the tech sector is going to be generational. Those companies that are ahead of it are going to be in the tremendous market position. Those companies that resist it, let’s say I really like this old world, probably will miss it,” the Oracle CEO said.

Hurd, a former HP CEO, made some predictions for the cloud market by 2025 at the firm’s flagship event OpenWorld in 2015. For instance, he said that 80 percent of all production apps will be in the cloud by the year. Two suite providers, including Oracle, will control 80 percent of the Software-as-Service (SaaS) apps market. In addition, 100 percent of development and test processes for software will be done in the cloud and all enterprise data will be stored in the cloud.

The SaaS and Platform-as-a-Service, or PaaS, are two marque cloud services of the firm.

Hurd said that the figures he forecast last year are still valid and that the company is fast growing to become a cloud powerhouse, beating rivals that include SAP.

Sales figures for the firm for the fiscal year 2016 that ended May show that Oracle’s drive for the cloud is picking up momentum.

The company posted $2.2 billion of revenue from its SaaS and PaaS businesses in the fiscal year 2016, up 52 percent on-year.

Total cloud revenues, including its infrastructure-as-a-service, stood at $2.9 billion, up 40 percent.

Its total cloud bookings stood at $1.5 billion in the fiscal year 2016, which was not included in the firm’s 2016 SaaS’ and PaaS’ revenues.

The sales from Oracle’s SaaS and PaaS will post a growth rate of 75 percent to 80 percent in the first quarter of 2017, ending August, he predicted.

Since having started the cloud services in earnest in 2012, the U.S. firm has seen its global SaaS and PaaS customers grow to 12,000 and 9,000.

Aiming to increase its clout in the cloud services market, CEO Hurd said that the company would increase its partnerships with small- and medium-sized firms, including those in China.

Without data centers or IT engineers, those relatively small players will be able to use Oracle’s cloud solutions that are also currently used by global companies including HSBC, GE and Ford, he said.

Cloud services will help companies reduce a huge amount of costs by eliminating the need for software development infrastructure that are often underutilized, he added. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)