A few years ago, moving to the cloud was seen as a smart IT upgrade. Today? It’s a full-blown business imperative. As digital innovation continues to reshape how companies build, scale, and compete, entrepreneurs who treat cloud as a strategic growth enabler — not merely a storage solution — are coming out ahead.
Statista found that cloud infrastructure revenues soared to $330 billion in 2024, a humongous jump from $50 billion in 2017. The train isn’t slowing down soon, either. With the growing hype around gen AI and cloud-native startups, the global market is expected to pass the $400 billion mark by the end of 2025. The message is clear: Cloud has stopped being a buzzword and started being the battleground.
But here’s the twist: Simply being on the cloud isn’t enough anymore. To unlock real return on investment, modern entrepreneurs must think more strategically. Specifically, with a multi-cloud mindset. This approach eclipses basic scalability, opening the doors to faster innovation, improved resilience, and long-term competitive advantage.
To dig deeper, I spoke to Kiran Minnasandram, VP of the Technology Transformation & Advisory Group at Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company, about this very topic. His take? “Cloud should not be viewed merely as a technology enabler, but as a direct enabler of business value. For startups and growth-stage firms, cloud is the fastest path to prototype new services, build scalable platforms, and tap into ecosystem innovation.”
So, how exactly do you turn cloud into your secret growth weapon? Let’s break it down.
1. The true ROI of cloud is speed, resilience, and revenue
Yes, you’ll save money on hardware and IT maintenance with the cloud. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The real ROI of cloud lies in its ability to accelerate innovation, reduce operational drag, and keep your business agile in times of crisis.
Cloud-native businesses can launch new services, test ideas, and pivot faster, all while keeping costs lean. One underappreciated benefit? Business continuity. According to research published in the Journal of Technology and Systems, cloud computing dramatically improves disaster recovery, offering automated backups, real-time replication, and distributed data centers that help businesses bounce back quickly.
For entrepreneurs, this means fewer sleepless nights worrying about system crashes and more time spent building what’s next.
Pro Tip: Use cloud’s pay-as-you-go model to experiment without the fear of sunk costs. Launch that MVP. Test that new market. The cloud is your sandbox.
“We advise clients to identify two to three core business differentiators (e.g., hyper-personalization, global digital reach, product velocity) and reverse engineer their cloud strategy around those anchors,” Minnasandram recommends. “The result: faster revenue realization, higher resilience, and improved investor confidence.”
2. A multi-cloud mindset multiplies your options
Here’s a phrase worth remembering: “Don’t put all your clouds in one basket.”
Modern entrepreneurs are increasingly embracing multi-cloud strategies, choosing the best tools and services from different providers to fuel specific goals. Why? Because relying on a single cloud vendor creates risk, both technical and financial.
According to CNBC reporting, startups backed by venture capital are actively using multiple cloud providers to maximize credits and optimize spend, especially as AI workloads drive up compute costs.
There’s more at stake than what’s on the invoice. “We recommend a forward-looking innovation architecture that leverages each cloud’s unique strengths,” Minnasandram explains. “This ensures that businesses are not just multi-cloud in hosting, but multi-cloud in capability. Over time, this model enables businesses to co-innovate with hyperscalers, access emerging services faster, and maintain competitive parity with more mature players.”
That’s the kind of flexibility that keeps your startup resilient, responsive, and ready to pounce on new opportunities.
3. Prioritize governance and security — or pay the price later
As your business scales, so do your risks.
According to Flexera’s 2025 “State of the Cloud Report,” 77% of organizations cite security as one of their biggest cloud challenges (second only to managing spend). For growth-stage companies, this isn’t just IT’s problem. It’s really a boardroom issue.
“As businesses scale into multi-cloud environments, governance and security move from backend functions to board-level imperatives,” Minnasandram says. “These aren’t just technical risks, but barriers to customer trust, geographic expansion, and investor confidence.”
The takeaway? In today’s cloud landscape, governance sits at the core of smart scaling.
As you build out your cloud architecture, think ahead:
- How will you manage identity across providers?
- Are your compliance protocols multi-cloud-ready?
- Can your security posture adapt as you scale?
Minnasandram stresses treating governance and security as design principles, not afterthoughts. The entrepreneurs who do? They’re the ones building trust and attracting capital.
Final thought: Think bigger than storage
Cloud is the infrastructure your team works on, yes, but it’s also the launchpad for everything you’re building next. Whether you’re scaling a SaaS product, spinning up AI capabilities, or testing a new customer experience, a multi-cloud strategy gives you the flexibility, power, and resilience to do it better and faster.
What looks like an IT call is actually a bold business move. It’s a growth decision. And for today’s entrepreneur, it might just be your smartest one yet.
