Amazon knows a thing or two when it comes to scaling up the business, and today the eCommerce giant has stepped into yet another category with WorkMail – a corporate email service, which offers email and calendar hosting services aimed to take on Microsoft and Google for a slice of the enterprise email market.
According to Forbes, WorkMail is from the Amazon Web Services (AWS) division which is already holding a lion share when it comes to public cloud computing market. To be clear, the new service is exclusively for the workplace and not for personal use. Amazon will be charging subscription fees of $4 a month for each account on WorkMail, prices that are in keeping with both Office 365 and Google Apps for Business.
Amazon is pitching WorkMail as a viable and better alternative to both Google Apps for Business and Office 365. The company claims that its email service is much simpler and more secure than the competition. In fact WorkMail lets corporate workers keep using Microsoft Outlook or other email applications, while replacing the backend datacenter stuff, primarily replacing the exchange.
On the security side, WorkMail messages are encrypted or scrambled, with companies getting the keys to unscramble content of emails. Moreover the data is stored in designated geographic regions to keep up with stringent European privacy laws.
Although the $4 pricing looks similar to Microsoft and Google’s offerings, Amazon is offering just the Email solution unlike Office 365 and Google Apps for business which offer additional features and resources. With increased focus on security, Amazon might as well manage to rope in enough corporates to start using its brand new service. It’s also interesting to see how Microsoft and Google responds to this move from Amazon.