How Cloud Technology is Helping Expand Business (2025)

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are like plants — they need nurturing, care, and attention. You want them to grow big and strong. Scalability is like giving your plant the right tools to grow, even if you don’t have a giant garden and fancy tools, like say, big competitors. It means using smart systems and tools that can handle more customers and information as your business grows.

For SMBs, growing is about being flexible and using what you have in the best way. Instead of hiring prematurely, you can focus on growing your current team and help them do better every day. Instead of investing in heavy hardware, you want a one-stop solution for your business — anywhere you are. That’s why many SMBs are using cloud technology to scale their businesses. In fact, 48% of SMBs leaders use cloud technology to backup and store data that helps them grow and scale.

What you’ll learn:

• What is cloud computing technology and how does it work?
• Categories of cloud services
• Top benefits for SMB to do business in the cloud
• Partnership of cloud technology and AI
• Time to scale up your small business cloud operations

What is cloud computing technology and how does it work?

Cloud computing technology refers to delivering various computing services over the internet, including storage, databases, software, analytics, and networking capabilities. Cloud technology is related to everything that is stored online. It allows users to access data and resources on-demand rather than investing in physical infrastructure. But this doesn’t mean it’s costly. Users typically pay only for the services they use as business changes.

Cloud computing tech operates through a network of remote servers hosted on the internet that store, manage, and process data. When you switch your device and still find your emails, photos, and history on a new device, it’s because of cloud computing. And with strong security measures, like advanced encryption, your important data is safe from unwanted access. 

Source: Opencodez.com 

Types of cloud deployment models

There are several types of cloud computing technologies, however, one size doesn’t fit all businesses. That’s why you need to decide the type of cloud deployment, or cloud computing architecture, that your cloud services will be implemented on first. There are three different ways to deploy cloud services:

1. Public cloud: These computing services are offered by third-party providers over the public internet. Everyone can use it via web browser or purchase them.
2. Private cloud: These are internal or corporate clouds owned by businesses. They give extra control and customization options to businesses controlling it through their on-premise datacenter.
3. Hybrid cloud: As the name suggests, it combines public and private cloud, allowing data to be shared between them. It gives you more benefits, and deployment options for existing infrastructure, compliance, and security.

Categories of cloud services

Each type of cloud technology provides a different level of control, flexibility, and management. Understanding these categories can help you decide what set of services are right for you:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) 

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) delivers information technology like computing power, storage, virtualization, and network resources on-demand over the internet. It allows you to configure the necessary resources to run applications and IT systems. 

How it benefits SMBs: It offers flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and scalability, reducing the high upfront capital expenditures and the complexity of managing a public cloud.

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform as a service (PaaS) provides a complete environment for developing, running, and managing applications. It includes the hardware, software, and infrastructure needed to support the entire web application lifecycle. PaaS solutions are designed to simplify application development, allowing developers to focus on coding without the complexities of managing the underlying infrastructure. 

How it benefits SMBs: It can help your SMB avoid the costs and complexities of buying and managing software licenses, infrastructure, and development tools.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS) provides users with access to applications over the internet. In this model, a cloud provider hosts the applications and makes them available to end-users. SaaS is accessible through a web browser, logging in with a username and password. It’s known for easy monitoring and automatic updates. All users have the same version of the software, accessed through a web browser.

How it benefits SMBs: It reduces IT support costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance to the provider. Additionally,  applications automatically scale up or down features according to the level of usage.

Top benefits for SMBs to do business in the cloud

Cloud technologies play a huge role in how SMBs scale. In fact, 63% of businesses believe that cloud technology improves their ability to grow and scale. ‌Specifically, cloud tech helps in these areas:

Improve team productivity

Cloud technology improves team collaboration, regardless of their physical location, by enabling real-time access, connecting, communicating, editing, and sharing documents. Additionally, cloud services streamline workflows and automate tasks, which reduces errors, and saves time. Cloud services can help you improve productivity in several ways:

• Accessibility: Teams can access files and applications from anywhere, at any time, as long as they have an internet connection. This flexibility can lead to more efficient workflows and better collaboration.
• Collaboration: Cloud tools allow multiple team members to work on the same document or project simultaneously, reducing the time spent on back-and-forth revisions and improving overall efficiency.
• Scalability: Cloud services can easily scale up or down based on the your needs, ensuring that resources are always aligned with demand without the need for significant upfront investments in hardware.
• Cost efficiency: Small businesses can save on IT infrastructure costs, as cloud providers handle the maintenance, updates, and security of the systems. This allows you to allocate resources to other critical areas.
• Data backup and recovery: Cloud solutions often include automatic data backup and disaster recovery options, which can help you quickly recover from data loss or system failures, minimizing downtime and productivity loss.
• Security: Cloud providers typically offer ‌security measures, including encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular security updates, which can help protect sensitive business data from cyber threats.
• Integration: Cloud platforms often integrate seamlessly with other tools and applications, streamlining processes and reducing the need for manual data entry or switching between different systems.

Boost your sales and marketing efforts

Cloud technology gives you access to customer information and analytics data to understand customers better. These capabilities help to gain insight into marketing campaigns, check customer engagement, track performance, and measure return on investment (ROI).

Cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems help sales teams manage customer data, track customer interactions, and collaborate with colleagues from anywhere with an active internet connection.

Cloud platforms can help analyze your referral paths and search terms to identify the best leads. Using that information, you can customize your user experience, craft a consistent brand story that resonates with your audience, and personalize landing pages and offers. This way you can easily deliver meaningful messages and drive higher ROI compared to traditional marketing.

Get new customers in the door

Cloud technology helps you grow and connect with customers worldwide. By using cloud services, you can reach customers no matter where they are, opening doors to international growth. 

You can team up with channel partners, like resellers, to broaden your reach without straining your resources. Many SMB owners rely on resellers ‌for their IT needs because they lack the resources for a full IT team. Cloud companies can partner with these channel resellers to extend your reach and tap into a wider customer base. 

Improve speed to market

SMBs already have the advantage of quickly capitalizing on new requests made by their customers. Having their business in the cloud reduces the time it takes to bring new ideas and products to market, acting as an accelerator for SMBs.

For example, you can offer trial versions of your products on your ecommerce store, allowing customers to test the value proposition before purchasing them. You can then analyze customer behavior during the trial period, and determine which customers will convert seamlessly and which need targeted attention. This’ll save your time and redirect your sales efforts toward the most promising leads.

Scale your business

Businesses using the cloud grow 26% faster and are 21% more profitable than their peers. Companies that adopt cloud technology also experience 2.3% to 6.9% higher revenue growth than those that don’t. Cloud solutions help SMBs focus on their core competencies, simplify operations, and reduce time, which is beneficial in a competitive industry.

For example, if you’re a retail business owner, you can use a cloud-based system to manage sales and access back-office features from any browser. It’ll enable you to view store performance and run reports from anywhere. This scalability ensures that you can handle increased web traffic during marketing campaigns or reduce server capacity during off-peak periods. You can also reduce costs and get help with resource allocation.

Techaisle and Salesforce conducted a global research study of more than 5,000 SMBs.  Did you know 41% of SMB owners believe that the cloud allows them to launch new products and services more quickly? Find out more on how SMBs can effectively use cloud applications for CRM, marketing automation, customer service, analytics, and more, to scale their businesses. 

Partnership of cloud technology and AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) impacts businesses vastly. 91% of SMBs using AI report a boost in revenue, which shows its impact. But how does AI benefit SMBs when integrated with cloud technology? Let’s see:

• Automate your workload with AI: AI can automate tasks like data collection and verification, reducing the need for manual input and improving overall accuracy. 76% of SMB owners say AI enables them to focus on high-value tasks. AI allows SMBs to automate manual and repetitive tasks, freeing up time to focus on higher-value activities such as developing new products or creating targeted marketing campaigns.
• Connect with more customers with AI: 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands offering personalized customer experiences. By integrating AI with CRM, you can personalize offers and messaging for different customer segments, making customers feel valued and boosting long-term loyalty. 
• Offer support for sales and service with AI: Generative AI can automate time-consuming sales tasks like composing emails and scheduling meetings, enabling sales teams to be better informed about important conversations. Similarly for service teams, it can help give automated replies, direct toward the resource and save time of  
• Build better leads with AI: AI can help you sell smarter and more efficiently by automating proposal generation and customer communications. It can also craft personalized emails to engage with promising prospects and automate the prospecting process.
• Create marketing campaigns: Autonomous agents like Agentforce can create campaign briefs, content, and even build customer journeys in Flow. It can also help you analyze campaign performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and suggest where you can improve.

Time to scale up your small business cloud operations

Choosing the right cloud technology can help you save costs, time, and unnecessary efforts. It can lead you toward a more agile, secure, and productive business. 

Start your journey with a free trial of Starter today. Looking for more customization? Explore Pro Suite. Already a Salesforce customer? Activate Foundations today.

AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.