What is Workmail in AWS?

It is a service offered by Amazon that is a secure and managed business email service. It also offers calendar service that supports usage with existing desktop and mobile email clients. The users of workmailhave the ability to access their email, contacts, and calendar with the help of Microsoft Outlook, or their browser, or their iOS or Android email applications based on the device they own. 

It can also be integrated with the existing corporate directory, thereby gaining the ability to control both the keys (one which encrypts the data, and the other one is the location in which the user data is stored).  

System requirements

It supports all major mobile devices and operating systems which support Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Such devices include devices from Apple such as iPad, iPhone, and phones from Android as well as Windows.  

MacOS users have the facility to synchronize or add their Amazon Workmail account into their Mail, Calendar or Contacts application.  

If the user owns a valid Microsoft Outlook License, they can access the Workmail from one of the below versions of Microsoft Outlook: 

• Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019 
• Outlook 2010, 2013 Click-to-run 
• Outlook for Mac 2011, 2016, and 2019 

Note: Amazon Workmail can be used with IMAP clients as well.  

Terminologies associated with Workmail 

Following are the terminologies: 

• Organization: A tenant which is set up to work with Workmail. 
• Alias: A unique name (globally) that helps identify the organization of the user. It can be used to access the Workmail web application as wee: https://alias.awsapps.com/mail 
• Domain: The address which is present after the symbol ‘@’ in an email address, ex- outlook.com. A domain name can be added that can be used to receive as well as deliver emails to other address in the user’s organization.  
• Directory: A directory created by AWS Workmail automatically, when the AWS Workmail setup is used.  
• Test mail domain: A domain which is configured automatically during the setup that is used for testing purposes. It is alias.awsapps.com and is the default domain if the customized domain hasn’t been configured.  
• User: This is created in the AWS Directory service. If a user has been given access to a Workmail, they have their own mailbox that could be accessed.  
• Group: A group, which can be used in the form of a distribution list or a security group with the Amazon Workmail. The only catch is they can’t have their own separate mail boxes.  
• Resource: This could be an equipment, a resource or a meeting room, which can be booked by the users of Amazon Workmail.  

Pricing

When a user account is active, it is billed, otherwise there are no upfront fees.  

Conclusion

In this post, we understood about Amazon Workmail and how it can be used to easily handle all work-related emails cost-effectively.