Linux is also driving the increase in cloud computing though, those web services that are replacing OSS code are being ran on linux, meaning it's really a special case.
Apart from the virtualisation features, I don't see many additions to the kernel that are driven by the cloud computing industry though. Most of the changes are drivers and revamped subsystems.
"revamped subsystems" ... that's where the new circumstances of "cloud computing" have their impact though (and also a bit of general technology churn, but that also has its roots in changing circumstances).
Huge memory, multi-core, I/O (and full stack optimisation for SSDs), network filesystems... all of these huge subsystem revamps are inspired by something.
