Oracle Corp. announced Wednesday that it has secured a cloud-computing alliance with Microsoft Corp., an acknowledgment that the database giant's go-it-alone approach to the cloud wasn't working.

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

The move by Oracle is bigger than the technical details may suggest. At Microsoft and elsewhere in the cloud landscape, broad partnerships are a common way to fuel demand by letting clients connect critical systems built by different vendors. That strategy has helped Microsoft thrive as the No. 2 provider of computing power and storage (behind Amazon Web Services, or AWS), as more companies move their data to the cloud. But that hasn't been Oracle's way. The company, led by Chairman Larry Ellison, has limited tie-ups with Microsoft and other rivals—and its revenue has contracted for the last two quarters.