By all accounts the first Cloud Computing Expo was a success. The “East” version is set for March 2009 giving cloudies just enough time to check emails, add a few posts to their blogs, and head off to the next expo for the next big thing.

One can learn a lot about who the key players are going to be in an industry by tracking which companies are investing in conferences and expos. Some of the more serious commitments in the recent cloud computing expo in San Jose are listed below. Others can be found in our directory of cloud computing vendors.

DataDirect Technologies is a leader in data connectivity and mainframe integration, offering a comprehensive line of software for connecting an organization’s critical applications to data and services, running on any platform, using proven and emerging standards.

Red Hat offers enterprise customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures on the quality and innovation of open source. Combining the leading open source operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management, and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite.

AppSense is a leading provider of user environment management solutions for the enterprise. User environment management enables the configuration and personalization of virtual, standard desktops by treating user specific data as a separate layer of the desktop.

AppStream offers streaming technology that reduces administrative overhead, costs, maintenance, and security concerns associated with managing applications and software on multiple endpoints.

Cordys -The Cordys Business Operations Platform (BOP) consists of a complete Suite for next generation Business Process Management (BPMS), Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and an open, integrated set of Tools & Technologies including Composite Application framework (CAF), Master Data Management (MDM) and a SOA grid that enables Cloud Computing.

FreedomOSS is focused on the practical implementation of SOA using Open Source solutions.

Sensedia offers products that enable enterprises to manage and reuse their SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and software development assets.

There are of course dozens of other companies who are actively investing to claim their stake in the cloud computing industry, but these companies went the extra mile at the recent Cloud Computing Expo in San Jose.