After nearly a year-long preview, Amazon Web Services Inc. has made its Amazon WorkMail offering available to all in a challenge for established enterprise e mail vendors.
WorkMail is a managed calendaring service and e-mail service. It can be used with existing providers such as Microsoft Outlook, Web services, or mobile apps that run on iOS or Android. It is compatible with Microsoft Active Directory so that Microsoft Outlook users can sign in to WorkMail using their corporate credentials.
WorkMail is a security feature and control that organizations can use to protect their data. This includes location control, encryption of stored information, message scanning for virus and spam protection, as well as policies and actions for controlling mobile devices. Jeff Barr, AWS spokesperson, said this week in a blog post.
AWS stated that businesses today face a difficult choice when using e-mail. It announced the preview in early last year. Hosting e-mail on-premises is expensive, complicated software licensing, and requires ongoing maintenance. While existing cloud e-mail service providers may be able to help with some of these issues, they don’t offer the security features businesses need (like strong encryption key management, full control over data location, and full control), or integrate with existing corporate directories. They also don’t support popular Microsoft Outlook features such as shared calendaring. Amazon WorkMail offers the simplicity and instant access that enterprises require, as well as the security controls and control required by businesses.
Barr said this week that WorkMail capabilities were expanded and improved during the preview. This will improve security controls as well as ease of use and migration. Integration with AWS Key Management Service, ISO certifications, ease of setup, support for additional customers, and many other enhancements are included.
Barr stated that there are more improvements in the pipeline. He said that Amazon WorkMail users will benefit from a single Global Address Book and be able to access their free/busy calendar information across both environments. He promised more details. We are also working on an electronic mail journaling feature. This feature will allow users to use their existing e-mail archive system to capture and preserve all Amazon WorkMail communications.
The service costs $4 per month and includes 50GB mailbox storage per user. For up to 25 users, a 30-day trial is free.
