Am I backing off from the idea that mobile devices and smaller SSD drives make cloud-based storage mandatory? No. However, using too many cloud services at once cancels out the convenience and simplicity I’m using the cloud storage for in the first place.

I’m not even worried about data security. Well, I am worried about data security, and I realize that protecting the data I store in the cloud is my responsibility. Selecting a secure cloud data service is certainly one of the primary factors in choosing between the many, many options that are out there. But, the key is choosing one--not four, or five, or seven.

I understand the draw. Dropbox offers 2GB of storage with its free account. Amazon Cloud, Ubuntu One, Google Drive, and Sugar Sync , and . Box gives users 5GB with its standard free account, but it has also run a number of promotions that give users 50GB for free under certain conditions. By setting up free accounts with all of the above I could have almost 80GB of free storage online.

80GB would be awesome. My music files alone take up 60GB so…oh wait. None of the accounts provides enough free space to hold all of my music in one place—not even the 50GB account with Box. That means I can store all of my music online, but I have to put a few gigabytes here, and a few gigabytes there. Then, if I want to store photos, or documents, or other data online I’ll have to figure out which of my free accounts still have some space left and tuck the data away there.

I’m sorry. That’s more effort than I’m willing to invest in a technology that supposed to make my life easier. I’d much rather choose the cloud service that best meets my needs and spend a few bucks to get the storage capacity I need and just use one.