I dunno about that, Oracle have been pushing "grid" computing long since before "cloud" became fashionable.
A big part of cloud computing is the idea of SaaS where they charge pay-per-user monthly or based on usage. This is driving costs down and the software vendor is responsible for upgrades and maintenance (a major part of Oracles revenue).
He has been quoted saying that there's no money in the on-demand model. These enterprise software companies had massive profit margins in the 90s with the licensing model.
It's in Oracles interest to slow the transition towards cloud computing and SaaS. Although it is overhyped, like all new technology.
If everyone switches to "the cloud" with non-relational data stores, that's not so good for them. (Even if "the cloud" is Oracle-backed, they still only sell one copy.) They have made a lot of money convincing people that their product is magical, and they don't want to lose out on that.
Couldn't agree more. Oracle currently has this going for them:
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/A-Software-Problem,-A-Market...
(to quote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, "it's true even if it didn't happen").
By no means did they invent this strategy, nor are they the only ones to use it, they're not even the only database vendor. MySQL relies equally on "magic". Selling on your technological merits doesn't work. Look at Sybase and Informix.
* other than "it's running on someone else's machine"