Why Is Cloud Storage Sold With a Fixed Maximum, Anyway? ⇥ benricemccarthy.com

Ben McCarthy, in a post about how difficult it is to manage a massive number of photos:

Additionally, I’d like for Apple to offer additional iCloud Storage options. Right now, the maximum capacity is 4TB; 2TB if you subscribe to Apple One’s Premier Tier and another 2TB if you pay a monthly fee for additional storage.

Ideally there would be an infinite option, or at the very least the ability to purchase multiple 2TB add-ons, that just stack as you need more. It would be expensive, sure, but better than running out of storage with no other recourse.

From one data hoarder to another, this is music to my ears. But why is this not already how cloud storage is sold? I can buy as many external hard disks as I can afford, but the amount of stuff I can store in iCloud is limited by Apple’s constraints, not my budget. It is not just Apple, either: most consumer cloud storage is sold in these kinds of fixed tiers. Why is there a maximum?

Mind you, I would feel more comfortable storing any amount of data with these services if they had a warranty. In my world, that should perhaps be a higher priority, and then it makes more sense to store several terabytes’ worth of photos on someone else’s computer.