At the present stage of the development of the digital economy especially relevant are the technologies that are universal in nature and will be able to change the business processes of modern Internet companies. One of such directions is cloud solutions that allow, among other things, faster access to the necessary information, minimizing the locally occupied memory, by shifting basic information operations to remote capacities, while accelerating many processes and making the expensive infrastructure unnecessary. However, it is worth noting the existence of a number of restrictions related to insufficient awareness of companies as to new solutions, as well as their link to existing solutions, which makes it quite difficult for them to fulfill transition to new, more efficient cloudbased instruments. The authors analyze the key factors of both positive and negative nature, which in some way or another influence the decision-making by digital companies on the beginning of active application of this complex of new technologies. A substantiation for the feasibility of such innovations is provided. The main trends of digital economy development and the process of digitalization with integration of traditional industries therein are considered. The main advantages and contradictions of implementation of the cloud technologies on a wide basis are shown. The relationship between the growth of quantity of information in the digital economy and the need to create effective mechanisms for processing and storing it based on the Public Cloud technologies is specified. The peculiarities of the API-first business model of companies that are actively developing in the face of growing global volume of information are considered. Examples of the positive effect of using cloud computing technologies in the digital product creation are presented and the industry's major players are listed. The importance of government initiatives for implementing innovations is noted. Actual directions of increasing the potential of using cloud technologies in business are identified.

The use of available digital tools, the entrepreneur’s personal human capital, and the formation and filling of niche markets are seen as the main factors of enterprises’ prosperity. Thus, the study aims to identify the impact of business research on the dynamics of operational and commercial efficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The online survey and regression analysis methods based on the data obtained were used. The study revealed that SMEs constantly need to perform data analysis, but despite the need for business intelligence, enterprises rarely use Big Data (cloud technologies). Most small businesses that conduct business research use digital tools, which poses acute problems of staff development and building an effective model for outsourcing research agents. Currently, the economic efficiency of business research is not clearly visible, which is due to the influence of strong external factors, as well as a low level of innovation and research activity of economic agents.