Oracle Corp. announced Wednesday that it has secured acloud-computing alliance with Microsoft Corp., an acknowledgmentthat the database giant's go-it-alone approach to the cloud wasn'tworking.

The software makers will connect their data centers so thatmutual customers can more easily use cloud services from bothcompanies, said Redwood City, California-based Oracle in astatement. Clients can run applications on Microsoft's Azure cloudthat are tethered to databases on Oracle Cloud. A single login willlet customers access either system, the companies said.

The move by Oracle is bigger than the technical details maysuggest. At Microsoft and elsewhere in the cloud landscape, broadpartnerships are a common way to fuel demand by letting clientsconnect critical systems built by different vendors. That strategyhas helped Microsoft thrive as the No. 2 provider of computingpower and storage (behind Amazon Web Services, or AWS), as morecompanies move their data to the cloud. But that hasn't beenOracle's way. The company, led by Chairman Larry Ellison, haslimited tie-ups with Microsoft and other rivals—and its revenue hascontracted for the last two quarters.