TIBCO Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) is the second-biggest gainer of all stocks with billion-dollar market caps today. That's saying a lot, given the bullish tenor of early trading, and TIBCO is now exploring fresh nine-year highs. The stock has doubled over the last year alone with a 90% gain year to date, and I still think there's more to come.

I feel pretty good about calling TIBCO out as the best tech stock for 2010 on days like these.

The reason for today's strong price appreciation is, of course, another stellar earnings report -- 23% year-over-year sales growth with a heavy dose of recurring revenue contracts and 35% higher non-GAAP earnings speak volumes about TIBCO's business trends. Cash flows are even stronger than earnings, and CEO Vivek Ranadive reiterated his view that the TIBCO model of information management has "hit the proverbial tipping point" and is destined for a virtuous cycle of increasing sales going forward.

The chief rival in TIBCO's world is IBM (NYSE: IBM) while Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) plays a much smaller role, despite the fact that Oracle has spent more than $16 billion to buy not one but two companies that appear to share a market with TIBCO's analytics software. Oracle's approach is obviously driven by database operations, which taps into the company's biggest strength and offers upsell opportunities when Siebel and PeopleSoft account talks are on the table.

Those products just can't match TIBCO's "information bus" architecture when it comes to reporting customer data in real time and taking action before it's too late. In the words or Ranadive: "What is the point of knowing that you have lost a customer after the customer has already gone? What is the point of knowing that you have a power outage after the power fails?" TIBCO's solutions give businesses a fighting chance to stay a step ahead of these events.

The TIBCO snowball has just started rolling downhill and will only grow larger and faster from here. Large system integrators including Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY), Wipro (NYSE: WIT), and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) are coming to TIBCO with an interest in selling its programs as part of large IT infrastructure deals. They wouldn't do that unless TIBCO offered them a real value-add, so this works out as a positive trend for both the business consulting firms and for TIBCO.

Some investors think TIBCO is too expensive at these levels, but I believe the company is finally getting the market respect it so richly deserves. Where do you stand? Voice your opinion in the Fool Poll, then explain why you feel that way in the comments below.