So far this year, the IPO market has gotten off to a good start. Just look at Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD), which develops human resources software. Last week, the company's public offering gained nearly 50% on its first day of trading.

Although, one of the most anticipated IPOs is LinkedIn. In fact, through some of its SEC filings, it looks like the company is poised for a strong debut.

Over the past couple years, the storage market has been the target of big acquisitions from companies like HP (HPQ) and Dell (DELL). With cloud computing -- as well as the emergence of data-hungry applications -- the growth in the market has been strong.

To capitalize on this, some of the top companies are looking at IPOs. For example, Fusion-io made its filing this week. The lead underwriters include Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS).

Over the past few years, cloud-computing -- which uses the Net to deliver applications -- has grown at a rapid rate. Investors have certainly benefited.

And yes, it should be no surprise that the IPO markets are seeing more cloud deals. As for the latest filing, it came this week. Active Network plans to raise $150 million in its offering.

For investors, online music operators have been extremely risky. Of course, the main problem has been the lawsuits over copyright infringement. As a result, there have been no IPOs in the online music sector since 2002. That was when Napster went bust.

But over the past couple of years, the environment has been getting better. Just look at Pandora, which is an Internet-radio company. It has filed for a $100 million IPO.

Investors certainly wanted a piece of the Epocrates (EPOC) IPO this week. The deal had a range of $13 to $15 but the company was able to price the offering at $16. Then in its first day of trading, the stock soared 37%. In all, the company raised $85.76 million.

Why all the excitement? Well, Epocrates is a leader in providing mobile solutions for medical information and records. They are available on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows platforms.

"Before the iPhone, Motorola's RAZR was the world's must-have handset. But the company failed to come up with a successor and has been bleeding market share ever since," notes Nathan Slaughter.

The editor of Street Authority Market Advisor explains, "Now, Motorola Mobility (MMI) is back. After being lost in the woods for a few years, this former leader has found its way.

"By last summer, Motorola clung to just a 3% sliver of the global mobile phone market and had slipped into 8th place. But the tide began to turn shortly thereafter -- and I am expecting a big comeback in 2011.

After a successful stint at PayPal, Reid Hoffman started LinkedIn in 2002. He did it from his living room.

Now LinkedIn is the largest social networking site for business. And yes, the company has filed to go public. The lead managers on the deal include Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM).

For private equity firms, there was much anticipation of the Nielsen (NLSN) IPO. These funds spent huge amounts from 2002 to 2007 on buyouts and they want to get some liquidity, as well as pay down debt.

Well, based on today's trading, private equity firms should definitely be optimistic. Nielsen priced its IPO at $23, which was above its $20 to $22 price range (raising about $1.9 billion). The stock is now up to $25. In fact, this is the biggest private-equity IPO since 2006.

A key to the success of Goldman Sachs (GS) has been its ability to anticipate major trends. For example, it did this during the 1980s by providing protection against hostile takeovers. Of course, then there was the move to proprietary trading.

However, in light of the Obama regulations, Goldman has had to make another major shift. In fact, it looks like the firm is going back to its roots of providing top-notch advice on public offerings and M&A.

Wall Street investment banks are prepping for a nice rebound in tech IPOs this year. And yes, they are already filing offerings. One of the first is Boingo Wireless, which is a leader in wi-fi access. The company hopes to raise $75 million.

In all, Boingo has 211,000 wi-fi locations in over 100 countries. Many are found in places like airports, malls, coffee shops, stadiums and hotels. Over the past 12 months, Boingo has seen more than 1.3 million Net users purchase its service.

As equity markets return and investors warm up to the risk trade, it looks like IPOs are poised for a strong 2011, especially in the tech sector. For example, according to a New York Times report, it looks like Groupon is in the process of talking to various Wall Street bankers to prep for a public offering.

Founded just a couple years ago, the company has grown like a weed. The website provides daily deals, which are at steep discounts. But Groupon actually gets half of the cut. Yes, it's a lucrative business as revenues reached $1 billion last year. Already Groupon is in 35 countries.

Since launching in March 2003, Crumbs Bake Shop has been a big hit. The company had impeccable timing for the boom in cupcakes. The industry even has several shows on the Food Channel.

Now Crumbs is going to see if it's the right time to be a public company. This will not be through a traditional IPO, though. Instead, Crumbs will merge into a special-purpose acquisition company (called 57th Street General Acquisition Corp.). The result will be a listing on a major exchange.

The market for streaming video calling is exploding. An estimated 13.2 million people worldwide will make video calls this year, up 400% from last year. By 2015, it is estimated that 155.1 million calls will use streaming videos.

Skype is a leader in low-cost phone calls. Calls to other people who have Skype are usually free. Now Skype is offering video calling for as low as $8.99 per month, with up to 10 people on the same call. Skype accounts for 25% of international calling traffic, up from 13% in 2009.