It was interesting to see Amazon announce plans to offer a corporate email service called WorkMail. The email tells us a lot about where the online retailer and cloud provider wants to compete; in this case Microsoft and Google are the prime targets.
As I see it, there are a few areas this could impact for MSPs moving forward.
Email Pricing
As with most things Amazon touches, there is the distinct possibility that pricing for this new email service will drop in the future, or at least have a depressing effect on other email managed services.
Amazon has a history of lowering its storage pricing. If they follow this trend in the email product it could create a perception that email is just a commodity service.
What’s the Difference Between Cloud & Managed Email?
I haven’t seen this new email service work so I cannot speak as to its usefulness, but let’s assume for the sake of argument it does work. Now, consumers will have a third cloud based email solution to consider, along with Google and Microsoft. Competition is good. MSPs, however, must distinguish between public cloud based email solutions and other varieties of “managed” email solutions.
Privacy
I’m sure Amazon will go to great lengths to promote this service as secure and private. However, with the amount of attention data privacy and security has been getting recently, I wonder whether this new product will compete effectively against well established public cloud vendors Microsoft and Google, who have had their own issues with privacy, security, and availability in the past.
Channel Conflict
Amazon has been courting the channel in a unique way for the last few years. While I wouldn’t call their channel efforts mainstream, it is undeniable that the IT channel does rely on Amazon’s computing platforms to drive a wide variety of software and service solutions.
MSPs may not be excited about doing more business with a cloud vendor who wants to take more service options away from the MSP.
In the end, it’s difficult to say how these new programs will play out. I can’t say that I’ve heard a lot of MSPs wanting public cloud alternatives to Microsoft and Google. Of course, this new email offering from Amazon may not be for MSPs at all.