Salesforce Data Cloud is the data platform built into Salesforce that collects customer data from many systems, matches the records that belong to the same person, and hands one profile back to your apps and agents. In October 2025 Salesforce renamed it Data 360, so you will see both names.
Think of it as a sorting room behind your CRM. Boxes arrive from every system, get unpacked onto standard shelves, and everything about one customer is clipped together. If you have ever chased the same customer across a Sales Cloud contact, a support case and a marketing list, this is the job it does for you.
Below I explain how Salesforce Data Cloud works step by step, the terms you will meet, what teams use it for, how credits work, and how to try it free. Every screen comes from our Winter ’27 Developer Edition org.