Dear Fellow Investor,
On October 30, 2005, something incredible happened…
In Redmond, Washington, USA, one of the world's richest — and most powerful — businessmen sent an urgent memo to his top engineers and most-trusted managers.
It sounded the alarm that a very disruptive "wave" was about to wash over the entire world — forever changing the way we get information and do business.
It also warned this would wipe out the $US200 billion business empire he'd spent his life building.
Meanwhile, a few hundred miles south, a mysterious outfit known only as "Design, LLC," quietly constructed two massive windowless warehouses.
This mammoth undertaking was code named "Project 2," and the International Herald Tribune described the towering monolithic structures as "looming like an information-age nuclear plant."
This may sound like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, but you'll want to have all the facts because…
Merrill Lynch estimates this "wave" has grown into a $US160 billion tsunami.
And experts say it's going to upend a $US1 trillion industry. Yet very few investors understand just how huge it's going to be.
That's why it's crucial to take the next few minutes to read this report in its entirety.
At the very least, you'll get the full story so you can decide for yourself if you'll be front and centre when the big money starts rolling in.
One of the most lucrative investment opportunities we'll ever encounter
The next great technological revolution is already under way.
And now that the last pieces are falling into place, it looks like the floodgates are beginning to open.
Which is exactly where you come in…
Just ask David Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool. He's convinced that this technological shift will dump millions of dollars into the portfolios of investors just like you.
David has featured on CNBC discussing his favourite growth stocks with some of America's other top-tier equity analysts.
When David gets excited about an investment opportunity, people stand up and take notice…
He's been closely tracking the development of this blockbuster technology and one dominant player heading the revolution, a name we reveal a little further down…
The Unimaginable Is Fast Becoming a Reality
You probably remember when computers took up entire rooms and were used only by companies that needed to do intense mathematical calculations.
That all changed when Intel unveiled the microprocessor and a geeky college dropout started writing software with his former high school pal.
Thanks to the virtual desktop they developed, the PC quickly replaced the mainframe as the centre of corporate computing and began showing up in homes across America and the rest of the world, including Australia.
Before long, companies began building interoffice networks so that their employees could run programs like Microsoft Word and Excel on their PCs and also access programs, files, and printers from a central server.
But this model was far from perfect.
Due to a lack of standards in computing hardware and software, competing products were rarely compatible — making PC networks far more inefficient than their mainframe predecessors.
In fact, most servers ended up being used as single-purpose machines that ran a single software application or database.
And every time a company needed to add a new application, it was forced to expand its data centres, replace or reprogram old systems, and hire IT technicians to keep everything running.
As a result, global IT spending jumped from under $US100 billion a year in the early 1970s to over $US1 trillion a year by the turn of the century.
Here's the dirty secret behind this mind-boggling growth — and the two words that will put an end to the party
IT consulting firm IDC reports that every dollar a company spends on a Microsoft product results in an additional $8 of IT expenses.
And one IT expert admits, "Trillions of dollars that companies have invested into information technology have gone to waste."
Yet, companies have had no choice but to run these obscenely expensive and highly inefficient networks.
But that's all about to change…
And that's precisely why the two words "cloud computing" reportedly scare the hell out of Bill Gates.
You see, the speed of computer networks is finally catching up to the speed of the computer processors.
Suddenly computers that were once incompatible and isolated are now linked in a giant network, or "cloud."
As a result, computing is fast becoming a utility in much the same way that electricity did…
"The next sea change is upon us." — Bill Gates
Think back a few years — anytime you wanted to type a letter, create a spreadsheet, edit a photo, or play a game, you had to go to the store, buy the software, and install it on your computer.
But nowadays, if you want to look up restaurants on Google… find directions on Google Maps… watch a video on YouTube… or sell furniture on eBay… all you need is a computer with an Internet connection.
Although these activities require you to use your PC, none of the content you are accessing or the applications you are running are actually stored on your computer — instead they're stored at a giant data centre somewhere in the "cloud."
And you don't give any of it a second thought… just like you don't think twice about where the electricity is coming from when you plug an appliance into the wall.
But cloud computing isn't going to be just a modern convenience — it's going to be an enormous industry.
You see, everyone from individuals to multinational corporations can now simply tap into the "cloud" to get all the things they used to have to supply and maintain themselves. This will save some companies millions and make others billions.
"Is cloud computing the next big thing?"
That's the title of an article in PC Magazine.
The answer was an overwhelming yes. And PC Magazine isn't the only one taking note of this sweeping trend…
Computing Heads for the Clouds – BusinessWeek
The Death of Hardware – Forbes
"Cloud Computing" seen as the next wave for technology investors – Financial Post
The Economist claims, "As computing moves online, the sources of power and money will increasingly be enormous 'computing clouds.'"
David Hamilton of the Financial Post says this technology "has the potential to shower billions in revenues on companies that embrace it."
And Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, has even written an entire book on the subject, entitled The Big Switch. In it, he asserts: "The PC age is giving way to a new era: the utility age."
He goes on to make this prediction: "Rendered obsolete, the traditional PC is replaced by a simple terminal — a 'thin client' that's little more than a monitor hooked up to the Internet."
While that may sound far-fetched, in the corporate market, sales of these "thin clients" have been growing at over 20 per cent per year — far outpacing the sales of PCs.
"Data centres have become as vital to the functioning of society as power stations." — The Economist
The simple truth is that cloud computing is becoming as big a part of our everyday lives as mobile phones or satellite television.
And one company is shaping up to be a remarkable way for investors like you to cash in on the fast-moving cloud computing technology.
You may already know what it is… and you may have even guessed that it's the real face behind Design, LLC.
But what you may not realise is that this could be still an excellent time to get invested — despite what many so-called "experts" in the financial media might be telling you…
Buying This Tech Juggernaut Today Could Be Like Buying Microsoft in 1990
Like Microsoft in the early 1990s, Google is just getting started.
It's already won the search engine war, set the standard for online advertising, and turned the company's name into a word tens of millions of people use daily.
And now it's fast becoming synonymous with the future of computing…
Over 500,000 companies — including American giants GE and Procter & Gamble — have already signed up for Google Apps.
This grab bag of business applications can be purchased and run over the Web for around $US50 per year and is just one of many Google products now giving Microsoft a run for its money.
Considering that Google Apps costs just one-tenth of what a traditional business software suite does, it's no surprise that more than 2,000 businesses are signing up per day.
No wonder the Financial Post says, "The cost savings in offering scaled-down versions of large enterprise software is making cloud computing a huge business."
You might be wondering how big this business can really get…
Industry research firm Gartner, Inc., says the market for Internet-based software recently hit $US11.7 billion and conservatively estimates it could grow to $US56 billion by 2020.
But don't forget, this is just one small part of the giant and highly profitable cloud computing world.
Given its dominance over the online world, massive network of strategic partnerships, and unmatched ability to innovate, you can see how the great majority of the fortunes generated by cloud computing could flow through Google's coffers.
Even so, you may be wondering…
Isn't it too late to buy Google?
It's a great question, and one we grapple with every day.
At the Motley Fool, we don't just grapple with Google's valuation and future prospects. We do the same with ASX quoted companies from the very biggest all the way down to the tiddlers that could make you an investing fortune.
If this is your first encounter with The Motley Fool, let us introduce ourselves.
My name is Bruce Jackson, and I'm the General Manager of Motley Fool Australia.
Way back in 1997 I co-founded The Motley Fool UK. From modest beginnings, firstly as Managing Editor and then as Managing Director, I built up the business into one of the most successful and recognised brand names in the UK financial sector.
In my 14 years at The Motley Fool, I've has written thousands of articles and pieces of content for the UK and US websites, and in 1999 also co-authored the best selling The Motley Fool UK Investment Workbook.
Now living back in my native Australia, I bring over two-decades of hands-on investing experience to the Australian public.
Investing Advice You Really Can Understand
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As we all found out during the global financial crisis (GFC), the world of money can move very quickly, sometimes in ways we least expect it, or want it.
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Yours Foolishly,
Bruce Jackson
General Manager, Motley Fool Australia
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