Amazon planning to take on Google Apps for Work w/ new ‘WorkMail’ service

Amazon Web Services is launching a new service (via The Wall Street Journal) this morning called “WorkMail,” an enterprise email and calendar solution that the Seattle-based company believes will bring a wide variety of improvements to a space that is largely controlled by Microsoft and Google.

“Customers are not happy with their current email solution,” Amazon Web Services executive Adam Selipsky said. “A lot of customers feel those solutions are expensive and complex.”

The two main areas that Amazon is interested in improving with WorkMail are simplicity of use and security. On the ease-of-use front, WorkMail will allow workers to continue using clients that they’re familiar with, as Amazon’s service focuses mostly on the part that you don’t see. And that’s where security comes in. Emails through WorkMail will be encrypted, allowing companies to control the keys to their own email. Amazon also has the capacity to make sure emails can be stored only specific geographic locations if need be.

The company is announcing Wednesday an email and electronic calendar service called WorkMail that is aimed at grabbing a slice of the corporate-email market largely controlled by Microsoft Corp. , and to a lesser extent Google Inc.

Amazon will be offering WorkMail at a price of $4 per 50GB inbox, which would put about in the same price range as its main competitors: Microsoft’s Office 365, and Google Apps for Work. It’s expected to arrive in Q2 of this year.