As demand for cloud-based services continues to soar, Oracle Corp. reported fiscal second-quarter sales and profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates for Internet-based software, which is now on track to bring in more than $1 billion in revenue this year.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company has unveiled that fiscal 2013 Q2 total revenues were up three percent to $9.11 billion. That compares with analysts’ average projection for profit of 61 cents on sales of $9.02 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Oracle’s second quarter performance reported double-digit revenue growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions, with expectations that the company’s cloud growth will become “much bigger” in time, according to Oracle President Mark Hurd.

“Applications, middleware and database all had double-digit growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions, with applications leading the pack with growth of over 30 percent,” Hurd said in a statement. “Our cloud offering of HCM, CRM and ERP applications plus the Oracle database and Java platform services is the strongest and most complete in the industry. Already approaching a one billion dollar run rate, our cloud business will become much bigger over time.”

In addition, new software licenses and cloud software subscriptions revenues were up 17 percent to $2.4 billion and software license updates and product support revenues were up seven percent to $4.3 billion.

Fending off smaller rivals such as Salesforce.com Inc. and Workday Inc., which also offer Web-based business products, Oracle’s acquisitions of RightNow Technologies Inc. and Taleo Corp. earlier this year have no doubt bolstered the company’s revenues from its cloud business.

The acquisitions indicate the increasing enterprise acceptance of the Software-as-a-Service (Saas) model, with HCM following in the footsteps of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) “as the next SaaS battleground,” according to Chief Analyst Tim Jennings. 

Net income for the quarter, which ended Nov. 30, rose 18 percent to $2.58 billion, or 53 cents a share, from $2.19 billion, or 43 cents, a year earlier, Bloomberg reported. Since 2005, Oracle has spent more than $50 billion on more than 80 deals, fueling an expansion in sales and earnings, the report said.