Do you remember the dot-com IPOs? Just the term dot-com captured the imagination of investors. Prices of some dot-com IPOs doubled in a matter of hours.

With the current financial crisis, the market for IPOs has slowed down to a trickle. But we still have investing ideas that capture our imagination. Just mention the word term 'cloud' these days, and you are off and running.

Such is the case with cloud computing ServiceSource (SREV), reported in Investors.com The issue was for 1.9 million shares, to be priced at $10 per share.

Over the past few years, cloud computing has become a hot topic. A variety of companies -- like NetSuite (N) -- have built applications that are based on Internet technologies. The result is improved productivity and lower costs.

Yet, in order to continue to propel the cloud-computing revolution, there needs to be a strong technology foundation, such as with servers, operating systems and application development tools. And one of the top players in the market is Red Hat (RHT).

We are being bombarded with data from a host of sources, including mobile devices, broadband and cloud computing. Bringing all of this data together will create a new business opportunity.

Ericsson (ERIC), the Swedish network equipment maker, has already foreseen the potential for bringing data together on its fourth generation Long Term Evolution Network (LTE).

"Microsoft (MSFT) recently released its fiscal second-quarter results; we felt results were really quite strong, with solid gains in most segments and good cost discipline," says Geoffrey Seiler.

The editor of Bullmarket.com explains, "If these results were from another company, the stock likely would have gotten a lift. But Microsoft is the Rodney Dangerfield of companies: it doesn't get the respect it deserves.

"Microsoft reported net income of $6.63 billion, or 77 cents per share, compared with $6.66 billion, or 74 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Sales grew by 5% to $19.95 billion from $19.00 billion.

It seems that cloud computing, which uses the Net to deliver applications, is a new trend. But some of the leaders have been in business for more than a decade. One is NetSuite (N). The company develops enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which helps companies manage inventory, payroll and other key financial functions.

And NetSuite continues to see traction. In its latest earnings report, revenues increased 21% to $52.1 million. For the year, revenues came to $193.1 million. Operating income was $3.5 million for fourth quarter.

This post is one in a series in which more than 60 newsletter advisors share their Top Stock Picks for 2011. This special report is courtesy of TheStockAdvisors.com.

"Computer Sciences (CSC) -- our top pick for 2011 -- is a global leader in providing information technology and related services to commercial accounts and government agencies," says Sy Harding.

The editor of Street Smart Report explains, "In our view, the wind is likely to be at the company's back as the economic recovery continues to strengthen over the next two years.

Even before the phrase "cloud computing" became popular, Citrix Systems (CTXS) was a top player in the industry. Over the years, the company has developed sophisticated technologies to leverage the Internet to share applications and allow groups to collaborate.

After being stuck in a trading range for some time, this year the stock of Citrix got juiced up. A big help has certainly been the surge from the leader in cloud-computing, Salesforce.com (CRM).

When it comes to cloud computing, Oracle (ORCL) has been late to the party. After all, even Microsoft (MSFT) has a growing position in the space.

But Oracle appears to be ramping up things. That is, the company has launched Oracle Cloud Office. Based on technology gained from the Sun acquisition, this offering has the full suite of web-based apps for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases.

With a market cap of nearly $20 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio at a nose bleed level of 267, it certainly makes a lot of sense for Salesforce.com (CRM) to get aggressive with acquisitions. The company is sitting on a growing pile of cash and it needs to maintain its competitive edge – which gets increasingly difficult.

So this week, Saleforce.com agreed to purchase Heroku for $212 million. Haven't heard of them? Well, in the programming community, it is a popular company. It is a cloud-computing provider for Ruby, which allows for the creation of web applications. This is done by creating a platform-as-a-service infrastructure.

"Some information technology areas have more dynamic growth prospects than others; a prime example is the emerging field of cloud computing," says growth stock specialist Stephen Leeb.

The editor of The Complete Investor explains, "One company in the forefront of this cutting-edge approach to information storage and management is EMC (EMC), a leader in digital data storage.

"Cloud computing refers to the storing of digital information -- documents, spreadsheets, software, etc. -- not on a company's or individual's own hard drive but in remote data centers, from which it can be accessed via the Internet.

In the fast-growing cloud computing space, Salesforce.com (CRM) is the franchise company. However, this means that the valuation is at premium levels. For example, the stock trades at nine times revenues and 174 times earnings. In other words, this stock is now for those who think the growth ramp will continue. And yes, based on the most recent quarterly report, it does look like good times will not end for awhile.

Profits came to $14.7 million, or $0.11 per share. But excluding certain stock-based charges, the adjusted earnings were $0.29 per share. As for revenues, these climbed 25% to $394.4 million.

Rackspace (RAX) is one of the top players in the web-hosting business. While the industry is a fairly stable, it is also prone to commoditization. Yet, Rackspace has continued to innovate and add new capabilities to differentiate its offerings. The upshot is that the company has had a nice growth ramp. True, the stock price has been somewhat erratic but this is likely to change. After all, the company posted another strong quarter.

In Q2, revenues spiked 23.2% to $187.3 million. This also represented a nice 4.8% sequential increase from Q1. What's more, total customer count has gone from 99,446 to 108,023 over this period of time.

It almost seems silly, but it shows how bad things have been before the last two days. The stock market had a second day up. It's been a while since we could say that. Today's gains were also well above the gains which were lost yesterday and the DJIA had its best day in almost a month. Bank stocks led the rally today, although many sectors shared in the joy. Suddenly, DJIA 10,000 was back today after a more than 200-point rally.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,018.28 +274.66 (2.82%)
S&P 500 1,060.24 +32.18 (3.13%)
Nasdaq 2,159.47 +65.59 (3.13%)

Top Analyst Calls

"IBM (IBM), our latest featured stock of the month, is no longer the company that might have been familiar to your parents; in 2004, CEO Samuel Palmisano sold off the company's PC (personal computer) business (to China's Lenovo) and shifted the firm's focus to consulting and services, given the higher margins they brought," notes Vita Nelson.

The editor of MoneyPaper explains, "In addition, recently, the company has put more emphasis on computer software. Palmisano asserts that business will account for half of pre-tax profits in five years.

While at a NetSuite (N) conference recently, I met with the folks at SAVVIS (SVVS), which provides hosting and infrastructure services. I was actually surprised to see them there.

But then again, SAVVIS is making a big effort to penetrate the fast-growing cloud-computing market. And from what I can tell, the company has a big advantage with its large customer base and global footprint.