Enhance email authentication and deliverability with Amazon SES and Valimail

As email continues to be a critical communication channel for businesses, ensuring proper authentication and maintaining high deliverability rates are increasingly difficult challenges. This post explores how Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) and Valimail work together to provide a robust solution for email authentication and deliverability, with a focus on meeting Microsoft’s new sender requirements.

The evolving landscape of email authentication

Email authentication protocols such as SPF and DKIM play a crucial role in preventing email spoofing and phishing attacks, with DMARC reports providing visibility into email authentication status. However, implementing and maintaining these protocols can be challenging, especially as major mailbox providers like Microsoft implement stricter requirements.

As of May 5, 2025, Microsoft began enforcing new authentication standards for bulk senders targeting their consumer domains. Senders who don’t meet these requirements now face SMTP rejections, potentially impacting their email deliverability and business communications.

Addressing authentication challenges

To help customers navigate these changes and maintain strong deliverability, Amazon SES is collaborating with Valimail, a leader in email authentication. This collaboration offers two flexible solutions:

1. Valimail Monitor (Free): Monitor helps you identify the sending services sending from your domains and provides a dynamic real-time check into compliance for Google, Microsoft, & Yahoo’s DKIM, SPF, and DMARC requirements.
2. Valimail Enforce (Premium): Enforce is an automated DMARC solution that helps simplify and speed up the process of getting to DMARC enforcement and includes unlimited SPF, in-depth reporting, notifications and expert product support.

Both solutions complement Amazon SES, allowing customers to leverage the scalability and reliability of SES while helping align their email sending with the latest authentication requirements.

Email authentication flow and security

The combination of Amazon SES and Valimail enhances the email sending process:

1. Emails are sent through Amazon SES.
2. Valimail continuously monitors the authentication status of these emails.
3. For Valimail Enforce users, automatic adjustments are made to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configurations as needed.
4. Detailed reports provide insights into authentication issues and potential threats.
5. Emails that pass authentication checks are delivered to recipients with improved inbox placement.

This process helps customers properly authenticate emails sent via Amazon SES, reducing the risk of spoofing and improving overall deliverability.

Gaining visibility into your domain with Valimail Monitor:

Continuously protecting your domain with Valimail Enforce:

Combined benefits of Amazon SES and Valimail

When you combine Amazon SES with Valimail, you gain comprehensive visibility into your email ecosystem while maintaining the robust sending capabilities of SES. The combination enables you to assess your compliance with the latest sender requirements from major providers like Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo. You’ll have clear insights into which of your domains are successfully passing DMARC, SPF, and DKIM authentication checks, and which ones need attention.

Beyond basic authentication status, Valimail provides a global view of all email traffic being sent on your behalf, helping you maintain control over your sending reputation. For organizations looking to strengthen their email security, this serves as the first step towards achieving DMARC enforcement, while seamlessly fitting into your existing Amazon SES workflows.

With Valimail Enforce, you get the added benefit of automated management of your authentication protocols, helping you comply with evolving standards while maintaining optimal deliverability rates. This not only helps improve your inbox placement but also helps enhance your protection against email-based threats and spoofing attempts.

Conclusion

The combination of Amazon SES and Valimail provides a powerful solution for organizations looking to enhance their email authentication and maintain high deliverability rates. This collaboration allows businesses to leverage the scalability of Amazon SES while helping them comply with the latest email authentication standards.

Additional resources

Take the next step in optimizing your email authentication and deliverability:

1. Set up Amazon SES for sending email
2. Sign up for a free Valimail Monitor account to gain visibility into your email authentication status.