Adrian Campos| Fool
Due to the strong demand for cheap software, cloud computing companies are enjoying great market momentum. This has attracted hundreds of competitors, from start-ups to traditional tech giants.
At least 13 new players have gone public in the last 18 months, with most of them surpassing the $1 billion market cap milestone in a few months. But only cloud companies that innovate their product portfolio constantly, and build economic moats, will be able to survive the competitive landscape.
Computer Associates Technologies , Amazon.com, and NetSuite are the best-performing stocks year to date in the cloud computing index. What makes each of these three companies special? How did they manage to build strong economic moats in a fierce landscape? More importantly, after experiencing more than a 40% increase in stock price, can they still be considered attractive investment opportunities?
Computer Associates and its 800 patents
Up an amazing 50% since January 2013, Computer Associates, also known as CA, started as an antivirus company and now is one of the largest cloud based software developers. Specialized in the business-to-business segment, CA has taken charge of several cloud projects, from developing a project management system for Siemens, to implementing a client automation system for Bank of Finland.
