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Mad Money Spotlight: Salesforce.com

Jeanine Poggi

Cloud software is remaining aloft -- and garnering the support of Jim Cramer's on Thursday night's "Mad Money" -- despite recent softness in the rest of the industry.

Indeed, Web-based software companies like Salesforce.com(CRM Quote) are actually benefiting from the weak economy, as they are saddled by less cost and lower risk than traditional software companies.

Salesforce's stock has gained about 40% this year and sells products to Dell, Sprint Nextel, Starbucks and Toyota Motor. Shares of the company were up 3% to $40.94 in morning trading.

According to Gartner Research, an information technology research and advisory firm, cloud-based software is expected to grow 22% to a record $8 billion in 2009.

The trend is putting pressure on traditional software companies, such as Microsoft(MSFT Quote), International Business Machines(IBM Quote) and Oracle(ORCL Quote), who have been late to the game when it comes to developing cloud technology.

Providers of cloud-based software host the technology in their own data centers, allowing customers to access it via Web browsers, which saves clients the cost of buying licenses in advance and running programs on their own computers.

Earlier in the month, rival NetSuite(N Quote) swung into profit in its first quarter, buoyed by strong sales of products at large companies. NetSuite targets mid- and small-sized businesses. This compares with a recent decline in software revenue of 6% at IMB and 5% at Oracle.

Salesforce is set to release its first quarter earnings on May 21.