By: prince simon
Submitted: 2011-02-08 04:11:40 | Word Count: 416
The online bookseller Amazon recently introduced a cloud-based email service termed Simple Email Service, or SES. This service allows businesses to send out emails to subscribers without having to initially invest in and install a third-party email service, meet ISP requirements, or configure their network. Users of Amazon SES are not required to spend a minimum amount or to sign any long-term contract, making this service very cost effective as well as convenient.
Because email services such as Amazon SES can fall into the hands of spammers, the company has set up a series of checks. When businesses initially apply to use Amazon SES, emails may be sent only to verified addresses. Only 200 messages per day may be sent, and all messages are inspected for malware or spyware. Those businesses that obtain approval from Amazon are allowed to increase their daily total of messages, and address verification is lifted. How many total messages are allowed per day will depend on the amount of email sent, email bounce rate, and whether any complaints are received. Theoretically, legitimate businesses can eventually send up to 90 emails per second.
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How does the Amazon SES process work? After eligible businesses subscribe to Amazon Simple email service, they can access the Amazon SES sandbox, which is a testing and evaluation area for this service. Businesses then verify their own email address by making an API call from that address. After the verification email’s embedded link is clicked on, that email address is approved. Once a business is ready to send an actual email, it requests production access, moving from the sandbox to the production environment. Two email formats may be used: an SMTP-compliant format, which contains embedded components and email headers, or a raw format, which allows for personalized email headers and MIME types. After the email is sent, Amazon SES provides statistics and feedback regarding that email’s volume, bounce rate, and issues (e.g., spam complaints).
The cost of using Amazon SES is quite low; with email messages being charged at $0.10 per thousand. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) users can start using Amazon SES for free, since the service does integrate with other Amazon Web Services (AWS). Up to 1 GB of data may be sent per month for no additional charge. Any data amount over 1 GB is charged no more than $0.15 per additional GB, and as much as 150 TB may be sent in a single month.
