LoudPC – Outlook everywhere you are

MasterCard might “be everywhere I want to be” but unless I’m at my desk my Outlook data rarely is. But when my Outlook data isn’t there a Web browser usually is …. hmm.

That was probably the ah-ha moment that the chaps at Loudfire had which led to a product called LoudPC (see links below).

LoudPC is a wonderful Web application because it is a pretty simple solution to a common problem. You first install the LoudPC software on the PC that runs your copy of Outlook and next time you are away from the office you can still access your Outlook data using any Web browser. By logging on to LoudPC’s secure Web site via any Web browser, you get access to not only your e-mail, contacts and calendar but also files on disk.

When an authorized remote client requests the Outlook information, LoudPC is put into action. First it accesses your Outlook database and local file system from your PC and then transfers that data in a proprietary XML format over a secure connection to the LoudPC server. The server reformats the data from your PC on the fly to a Web page and sends it to the remote browser over HTTPS to ensure security.

Another neat feature is that LoudPC supports PCs, PDAs and WAP-enabled phones so you can use the same services on any platform type.

Note that this is not like a PCAnywhere or VNC approach – the data being moved from your PC is not screen image data. This means that while you can access your calendar and so on you won’t be able to see your Outlook Today page.

For LoudPC to operate your PC must obviously be on. If you are using Outlook and it isn’t running on your PC you can still access appointments and read and reply to mail that is already received but you won’t be able to send and receive mail. If you are using Outlook Express it must be running to do anything with your Outlook data (under the hood Outlook and Outlook Express have quite different architectures).

You can also selectively share your Outlook data with a number of other users so that, for example, your contacts can be viewed and optionally edited by other people.

LoudPC is a great idea and very useful. It costs $59.95 per year per user and volume discounts are available.