Amazon declined my request for access to Simple Email Service (SES), and I'm trying to understand why. I'd prefer to keep my entire infrastructure on AWS rather than pay another provider just to send email. My use case is limited to registration confirmations and routine service notifications for a SaaS application. What requirements does AWS have for SES access, and what should I do next?
2 Answers
Be careful about what access you requested. Sending mail directly from an EC2 instance is generally restricted and is a poor choice for application email anyway. Use SES through its API or SMTP interface, verify your sending domain, configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and keep transactional messages separate from marketing mail. Once production access is approved, you can send registration and service notifications without needing another email provider.
SES is usually available in a sandbox automatically, but sending to arbitrary recipients requires requesting production access. AWS reviews the request because abused accounts can damage the reputation of shared sending IPs and get messages blocked by major email providers. Explain your application, expected sending volume, how users opt in, your bounce and complaint handling, and how you’ll process unsubscribe requests. Also make sure the account is in good standing and that your domain is verified.
That makes more sense. I was assuming SES access and production sending permissions were the same thing. I’ll provide those details in the request.