By Aaron Tilley

Oracle Corp. is benefiting from increased focus on providing the kind of cloud-computing products and services that have lifted the fortunes of many tech companies.

Oracle, the business-software provider best known for its in-office database products, has been trying to remake itself after falling behind as many companies embraced cloud computing, the lucrative business where vendors offer remote hardware and software services. Companies are broadly speeding up their shift to cloud-computing while curtailing spending on in-office tools.

"The things that are going very well and are growing and are getting larger and larger is everything associated with the cloud," Oracle Chief Executive Safra Catz told analysts on Thursday, after the company posted sales for the August quarter of $9.37 billion and earnings of 72 cents a share. Wall Street expected $9.17 billion in sales and earnings of 67 cents a share, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Oracle also has become part of the race to acquire at least parts of video-sharing app TikTok whose owner, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., has come under U.S. government pressure to sell. A deal would add a marquee name to Oracle's cloud effort as it tries to catch up with market leaders Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which is also vying for TikTok. Oracle wouldn't address TikTok in the call with analysts.

The pandemic has driven many companies to embrace digital tools on an accelerated timeline. That has lifted the fortunes of cloud-service providers such as Amazon and Microsoft, as well as the companies that run on the cloud, such as Salesforce.com Inc., which last month raised its full-year outlook, and Zoom Video Communications Inc., which lifted its forecast last week.

During the coronavirus crisis, Oracle has managed to attract new customers for its cloud products, including in April adding Zoom, which needed more capacity to handle a surge in its user numbers. Ms. Catz said the Zoom business had more than doubled in the last quarter from the one before. Oracle also won another videoconferencing provider, called 8x8 Inc., as a cloud customer.

Oracle said it saw both growth in the cloud-software tools it offers and its infrastructure business, where it rents server capacity to clients.

"I have a high level of confidence that our revenue will accelerate as we move on past Covid-19," Ms. Catz said.

Although Oracle has enjoyed some of the benefits of the push into cloud computing, it remains weighed down by its legacy activity of selling databases that companies run in-house. Oracle said it was moving many of its historic database customers to its cloud-based products and winning new business.

Oracle shares have risen around 8% this year, far less than its larger cloud-computing competitors. The stock rose more 3% in after-hours trading following its earnings release.

Ms. Catz said sales in the current quarter should increase 1% to 3% and adjusted earnings per share should come in at around 98 cents to $1.02, slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Write to Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com