Oracle has posted a sales increase of 3 percent for the second quarter of 2012 compared to the same time in the year before.

The increase in sales to £5.6 billion has been limited however by poor performance from hardware sales which dropped by 23 percent.

New growth can be expected with increase cloud uptake as Oracle releases a new database in 2013, with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison saying that this can be expected to drive growth “for the next several years,"

Oracle president, Mark Hurd, said: “Q2 performance was strong and broad-based, as all geographies reported double-digit revenue growth in new software license and cloud subscriptions.