Last week, Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen declared that “the clock is really ticking” for Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL). He said the future was destined to be dominated by fast-growing cloud operators like Box.net, Okta, Workday and Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM).

While it’s true the software market is undergoing tremendous change, it still looks like Oracle’s death has been greatly exaggerated. In light of the weak performances of companies like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO), Oracle has been a standout performer.

There are many reasons for this. First of all, Oracle’s cofounder and CEO, Larry Ellison, has a keen understanding of megatrends. Playing off his insights, he engaged in an aggressive string of acquisitions during the past six years, buying companies such as PeopleSoft, BEA and Sun Microsystems. All in all, the strategy has maintained Oracle’s growth momentum.

But perhaps the most important advantage is Oracle’s tremendous database business, which has about 300,000 customers. Unless a much better and cheaper alternative emerges, it seems highly unlikely that Oracle customers will switch.

So looking forward, it should be no surprise that Ellison is finding ways to leverage the database franchise. For example, at the highly popular OpenWorld conference, he talked about the huge opportunities for “big data.” Yes, with the explosion of social networking — both in the consumer world and the enterprise — as well as the surge in mobile use, there is a need for next-generation databases. And Oracle is working hard to be at the forefront.

The company plans to focus more on hardware products designed to provide more speed and efficiency. Two such products planned for launch — Exalytics Business Intelligence Machine and the Oracle Big Data Appliance — will handle massive amounts of data and also provide analytics. Oracle clients will be able to use the hardware to see if their customers are having problems, for example, or even if there is unusual activity on Twitter. These new products also will feature sophisticated tools for forecasting. After all, what good is data if you can’t learn from it?

Now it’s true that Oracle must deal with some tough competitors. They include companies like EMC (NYSE:EMC), IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Teradata (NYSE:TDC). But then again, Oracle always likes a good fight, and it usually wins. And in light of the rapidly growing need for databases, Oracle’s new initiatives could maintain its growth machine for some time to come.

Tom Taulli is the author of “All About Short Selling” and “All About Commodities.” You can also find him at Twitter account @ttaulli. He does not own a position in any of the stocks named here.