While acknowledging that lots of work is currently being done to differentiate and integrate private and public cloud solutions, Microsoft Architect David Chou believes that Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is the area of Cloud Computing that will make its impact most noticeably in 2010 - especially for startups, and small-medium sized businesses.

In this quickfire mini-interview with SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal, in the run-up to November's Cloud Computing Expo in Santa Clara, CA, Chou also mentions who he deems to be the Top Five Companies in the Cloud as at Fall 2009. One of the five he chooses, hardly surprisingly, begins with M.

Here are the quickfire questions asked and answered during the brief interview:

Cloud Computing Journal: Who in your view are the Top Five Companies in the Cloud as at Fall 2009?

David Chou: Amazon, Google, Salesforce, VMWare, and Microsoft. Overall; not just infrastructure-as-a-service companies. Though I think this landscape will change very quickly as IBM, Oracle, and SAP solidify/clarify their plans. HP doesn’t look like it’ll jump into the fray at this moment, while some companies in other countries may (like Baidu and Tencent/QQ in China).

Cloud Computing Journal: Where do you think Cloud Computing will make its impact most noticeably in 2010?

Chou: Infrastructure-as-a-service; especially for startups, and small-medium sized businesses. Lots of work being done to differentiate and integrate private and public cloud solutions.

Cloud Computing Journal: What is the biggest category of user is not using the Cloud right now, who ought to be?

Chou: Product planners, marketing, business executives, etc.; basically non-IT people in organizations. IT people tend to look at the cloud as an infrastructure option, but we think the cloud is an enabling technology for new business offerings and capabilities.

Cloud Computing Journal: How important is SOA to the Cloud, and vice versa?

Chou: Absolutely important! Even more so than traditional SOA patterns of enterprise-wide transformational efforts (big SOA). For cloud, it’s more important to integrate with private clouds, other cloud services and applications, beyond individual cloud vendor boundaries and enterprise firewalls. SOA is essential in creating an effective architecture that spans the world of distributed services.

Cloud Computing Journal: Lastly, which Cloud Companies are the most likely to be bought up next by the giants?

Chou: Cloud management technologies, cloud security vendors, vertical application services (cloud-based).

About David Chou: David Chou is a technical architect at Microsoft, focused on collaborating with enterprises and organizations in areas such as cloud computing, SOA, Web, distributed systems, security, etc., and supporting decision makers on defining evolutionary strategies in architecture. As an expert on Windows Azure Platform, Silverlight, .NET, and the broad Microsoft platform, plus Java and many open-source platforms, David is often tasked to provide guidance on how “Software plus Services” fit in heterogeneous environments according to specific enterprise needs and organizational requirements, while mapping to emerging trends and best practices.