What happened Shares of Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) gained 160.1% in the calendar year 2020, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The provider of monitoring tools for cloud computing systems and services delivered nothing but stellar earnings reports all year long, and the company signed a potentially game-changing partnership with computing giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) along the way. So what Datadog's monitoring service became a first-class citizen of Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform on Sept. 30. Investors sat up and took notice, and the stock closed 12.4% higher that day. Beyond simply allowing Azure customers to install and run Datadog's tools with full technical support, the two companies also committed to cross-selling and promoting each others' products. That's a big win for Datadog, which is this partnership's smaller company by far. Image source: Getty Images. Among the year's earnings reports, the first-quarter update stands out as the most impressive showing. Sales rose 87% year over year to $131 million thanks to a healthy inflow of long-term subscription contracts. The adjusted bottom line swung from a $0.09 loss per share to a net profit of $0.06 per share. Your average analyst would have settled for a loss of $0.01 per share on revenue near $118 million. Datadog's stock closed 23% higher the next day. Now what As cloud-based services continue to take over the software industry, Datadog's tools become more and more crucial to operating a modern IT department. It's not the only game in town but a well-respected competitor for pretty much every contract in the cloud monitoring market. This is not a cheap stock by any stretch of the imagination, but growth investors with a high tolerance for valuation risk may want to take a closer look at Datadog. 10 stocks we like better than DatadogWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Datadog wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 20, 2020 Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Datadog and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source