Challenges Questions On Packaging Cloud Specific Software For Debian

Smooth integration with modern day clouds requires extra tooling and support inside the image.  New cloud features ship every few months, and OS images need software updates to take full advantage.  At the same time, some of these software packages are difficult to package.  Some need to change default configuration in other packages (e.g. sshd), have exotic dependencies, version-mismatches across Debian releases, etc.  What best practices should cloud vendors take?  Google has case studies to discuss.