Amazon WorkMail – Now Generally Available

I first wrote about Amazon WorkMail last year when we made it available in preview form. At the time, I noted that Amazon WorkMail is a managed calendaring and email solution that runs in the Cloud and works with your existing desktop and mobile clients. In my initial post (Amazon WorkMail – Managed Email and Calendaring in the AWS Cloud) I discussed Workmail’s security features and controls. These include location control, encryption of stored data, message scanning for spam & virus protection, and policies & actions for controlling mobile devices.

Now Generally Available
I am happy to be able to announce that Amazon WorkMail is now generally available in three AWS regions (US East (Northern Virginia), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Ireland)).

We continued to add features to Amazon WorkMail during the preview, with a focus on security, ease of use, and migration. Here’s a summary:

Integration with KMS – You (the email administrator) can use AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to create and manage the keys that are used to encrypt data at rest. To learn more, read How Amazon WorkMail Uses AWS KMS.

Certifications – Amazon WorkMail has achieved the ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018 certifications. You can learn more about these certifications on the AWS Cloud Compliance page.

Regional Data Control – You can choose the region where you want to store your mailboxes and be confident that the stored data will not leave the region. For more information, take a look at Amazon WorkMail Regions and Endpoints.

Easy Setup – By using Amazon WorkMail in conjunction with Simple AD, you can be up and running with a modest number of clicks, generally in 10 minutes or less. Read Getting Set Up to learn more.

Additional Client Support – Amazon WorkMail now supports clients that run on OS X, including Apple Mail and Outlook. It also supports clients that use the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol including iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Fire Phone, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry 10. To learn more, read about Desktop Clients and Mobile Clients (there’s also a web application).

Resource Creation – Users can now create and book resources such as meeting rooms and equipment. Read Working with Resources to learn more.

Migration & Interoperability – Amazon WorkMail now includes a migration tool that you can use to migrate existing mailboxes to Amazon WorkMail (see Migrating Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes to Amazon Workmail for more info).

In the Works
We are working on interoperability support that will allow users of Amazon WorkMail to benefit from a single Global Address Book, and to access free/busy calendar information across both environments. I’ll have more information on this feature in the near future.

We are also working on an email journaling feature. This feature will allow you to use your existing email archiving system to capture and preserve all Amazon WorkMail communication.

Getting Started
Amazon WorkMail costs $4 per user per month, including 50 GB of mailbox storage per user (see the Workmail Pricing page for details). There’s also a 30-day free trial for up to 25 users.

You can read Getting Started with Amazon Workmail to learn how to put WorkMail to use in your organization.

— Jeff;