"SOA serves as the foundation for the move into the cloud," stated Dr. Kareem Yusuf, Director Product Management, WebSphere Software, IBM, in his keynote at SOA World Conference & Expo in NYC Tuesday.

"What are the characteristics of the cloud?" Dr Yusuf then asked. Shared infrastructure, self-service capabilities, and the fact that it will be virtualized are several that he mentioned. He also noted that two things stand out about the cloud - self-service access and management, and elastic scaling.

"What we are actually doing with the cloud comes down to cloud services," stated Dr Yusuf. "What kind of service do you want to provide as the cloud becomes a means of delivering that service."

He then categorized three types of cloud-based services:

1. Infrastructure as a Service
2. Platforms as a Service
3. Applications as a Service

It's first and foremost about service. You then apply SOA to this as SOA is a way of thinking how to build this service. SOA, in effect, really shapes how you deliver and leverage cloud-based services, Dr. Yusuf noted.

Toward the end of his keynote, Dr Yusuf stated that there is an evolution in how software is delivered. And cloud computing and SOA share a unique relationship that will help to pave the way for both the creation and adoption of cloud solutions.