Working under the Rain Cloud

A new web based application that's pretty cool

I've been using a new web based application called Rain Cloud for the past few days and its solved a whole stack of problems in how I manage my e-mail, calendar and contacts.

Here's how I used to work.
I have had a POP3 e-mail account with Bigpond for ages and its the account I've mainly used for my business. I use a Mac laptop and an iPhone 3.0.
On the Mac I used Entourage for e-mail, with a whole stack of rules to sort incoming e-mails. I also have another six or so POP3 e-mail accounts for various links I have with other businesses. I set each of these up in Entourage as separate accounts. When I did a Send/Receive, Entourage collected the e-mails from the various accounts and sorted them into the folders. On my iPhone I set up the Bigpond account as a POP3.
In order to sync my calendar and contacts between my Mac and iPhone, I signed up for a Mobile Me account.

Problems:
1. POP3 on an iPhone is awful. Takes forever to send and of course no synching between my Mac and iPhone mail folders. Mobile Me could have solved that, but you need to use an @me.com e-mail address, which is not that cool for business.
2. I also own a number of domains which relate to my business name but as their e-mail services are just POP3 accounts, I had never really used them for my e-mail.

The Rain Cloud solution
The Rain Cloud, developed by Digerati Solutions, leverages Apple's Microsoft Exchange functionality and provides a better and more flexible service than even Apple's own Mobile Me.
Rain Cloud run a Microsoft Exchange server in their data centre and each user has their own account and secure mail folders. For a small business owner like me, this is ideal as there is no way I would ever install or run my own Exchange server. This way I can take advantage of the Exchange technology without the cost.

How does it work?
Firstly, I delegated the MX mail record for one of my business domains to the Rain Cloud server. I used the DNS functionality attached to my web content management system - dead easy to do. Once that was done the Rain Cloud guys built my profile, creating my username and password.
Then, using Apple's Microsoft Exchange integration, built into the Mac OSX operating system, I created an Exchange account on Apple Mail, iCal, Address Book and Entourage. (We had to download the latest update for Entourage and install their web server version - but very simple)
On my iPhone, I added a Microsoft Exchange account, turned off my POP3 and MobileMe accounts and away I went. The beauty of the Rain Cloud is that all my mail folders, calendars and address books are synchronised across all programs and devices. If I add an iPad one day, I'll just add the Exchange server to its configuration.

I did have to make a decision to set-up a new business e-mail address, but owning the relevant domains made that an obvious thing to do. (Bigpond POP3 accounts don't have this option)
I have gone into the Webmail function of each of my POP3 addresses and forwarded them to the new business e-mail address. Using Exchange rules I then sort these into the appropriate Exchange folders which appear on all my devices and programs.

I can also access all the above via Outlook Web Access from any web connected computer from anywhere in the world.

Pluses

1. All my e-mail folders, contacts and calendar items appear in sync on all my devices and programs and updating the data in one spot replicates instantly across all the others.
2. I can now send e-mails from my iPhone and have them sent instantly, plus have these sent items appear on my laptop.
3. I can use Exchange's out-of-office and other functions across my devices
4. All my e-mails from all my various accounts appear in the one place, without multiple log-ons to each site.
5. The RainCloud guys back-up their server every day, so if I do lose everything, they can rescue me.
   

Negatives

1. I miss the coloured calendar items from iCal. They still work, but not in the Rain Cloud calendar. Limitation of Exchange Calendar.
2. Notes doesn't seem to work across Exchange in Entourage
   

Cost
This is quite reasonable - talk to the team at Digerati Solutions.