Introduction
As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen email infrastructure security, we will be updating our Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, And Conformance-DMARC policy from quarantine to reject for the domain "alerts.ondemand.com," which is the sender domain for notifications such as cloud service availability and quarterly release announcements. To recap the progression — last year we moved from none to quarantine, and this next step further hardens our email authentication posture.
What is DMARC?
DMARC is an e-mail authentication, policy, and reporting protocol. It is a standard that helps prevent spoofing by verifying the sender's identity and is built on top of Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) protocols. If neither of those authentication methods passes, the DMARC policy determines what to do with the e-mail.
What will happen?
The current DMARC policy is set to "quarantine." Under this policy, emails that fail DMARC validation are not delivered to the recipient's primary inbox — instead, they are redirected to a secondary location such as the spam or junk folder, or a dedicated quarantine mailbox, for further review. To provide stronger protection against email spoofing and domain abuse, the policy will be updated from "quarantine" to "reject." Under the reject policy, any email that fails DMARC validation will be blocked outright and will not be delivered to the recipient at all — ensuring that only authenticated, legitimate emails reach the inbox.
What is the impact?
The impact on legitimate email delivery is expected to be minimal. However, it is important to be aware that email forwarding is one of the most common cause of DMARC failures, which may result in emails being blocked or rejected. If the email forwarding for "alerts.ondemand.com" is in use, it must be configured to ensure that the original email content is not modified in any way. The forwarding process must not invalidate the DKIM signature. However, the addition of "Received" headers as part of the forwarding chain is perfectly acceptable and will not impact DMARC compliance. Kindly align with your local IT support governing email security. If you notice any valid emails have not been received because of the policy change, please raise a support ticket with us so we can further investigate. To help us diagnose and resolve the issue efficiently, please include one of the following when submitting your ticket:
- The original email (as an attachment), or
- The email headers
When will the change take place?
18th Nov 2026, 03:00 AM to 03:45 AM UTC
Where can I get details or support on this topic?
You can refer to the FAQ for further details on the DMARC policy change.
