I'd say Google Analytics
Merchant accounts for processing payments
Email marketing software
Accounting software
Anti-virus and data storage
In today's day and age I feel that mobile applications are a must have.
This may vary from business to business. But here are the ones I'd recommend.
1. Great domain - needs to be catchy and resonate well with your target audience
2. Affordable hosting - important
3. Marketing tools
4. Payment processing software
5. Accounting software
Chatbots are a great thing for CRM software. They are available 24/7 and can interact simultaneously with a thousand users.
Good backup storage space is a must nowadays.
Also, I can't stress enough, you do need lot of IT experts for your computers. IT division is a must now.
Pretty good points have been raised here.
But I'll say for any business to thrive especially small business. The following technologies will be needed.
1. Fast computers/ laptop
2. payment processor
3. Hand-held device (smartphones)
4. accounting software
5. Data storage capabilities
Technologies That Are A Must For Small Businesses
1. Customer relationship management (CRM)
2. Payment processing
3. Social media
4. Website
5. Location-based tools
Hope this helps.
I agreed with you, nowadays cloud technology is the best for all kinds of business, once you host your Accounting software or other software on the cloud server then you can access it from anywhere anytime from any device.