"When I want to access this document -- from my house, office, laptop or mobile phone -- I simply go to my Google account and it shows up. This kind of computing has gone from quixotic concept to ubiquitous reality.

"From a business standpoint cloud computing is compelling because it means a business doesn't have to buy software or licenses for each of its employees or hire additional IT staff to maintain and upgrade software packages or train staff on how to use them.

"Some cloud computing giants got there as a happenstance to their original business models. Amazon.com, for example, is known as a leading online retailer.

"But because it had to build up enormous amounts of data storage for all its records and then began to build relational databases among its customer profiles, an entire new business sprung up.

"Amazon can 'sell' its excess storage capacity and also works with businesses on their marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) protocols.

"Now Amazon-the-online-bookstore is also Amazon-the-cloud-computing-storage-vendor-and-management-consultant-to-online-businesses. It's this kind of adaptive business acumen that we like so much about this company.

"Another pioneer in this space is Salesforce.com, a CRM and sales site that's removed the software from your desktop and stuck it in the cloud. Sales teams can now coordinate and interact while on the road from any computer, wherever they are.

"It's also much more cost effective for business to go with a cloud CRM provider. And in this kind of economy, you have to leverage every dime.

"A new player that's generating a lot of buzz is Rackspace. Two web developers were sitting around a Wendy's in 2004 talking about the clustering, load-balancing, and virtualization.

"They analyzed what the large enterprise customers were using to stay online. They set out to bring that sort of redundancy and scalability to web applications, regardless of whether it was for an individual or business.

"By 2005 the company was off and running. Basically, it rents cloud space to businesses and individuals--and it's the world's leader in hosting.

"It delivers websites, web-based IT systems, and computing as a service. This is where the online world is trending and where long-term growth opportunities are huge."

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers a free daily overview of the favorite stock picks and investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.