report over at ZDNet, Microsoft is ready to rename Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure, with a public announcement expected tomorrow. Boy, that’s quick! The change, however, will only come into effect on April 3, the second day of the company’s BUILD developer conference. It takes a while for these things to materialize. But the intention behind this rebranding is crystal clear. Redmond wants to drive home the point that Windows Azure is not a product that is aimed exclusively at the Windows platform. The cloud service supports competing, cross-platform and open-source solutions too — Oracle databases, Linux, PHP, Java and Python, and the like. Microsoft has, it must be said, is starting to pay more attention to the marketing impact of its products, and while Windows Azure is more of a business service, this is still a logical change. The big question, then, is that why it had a Windows branding in the first place, when Microsoft was fully aware that the cloud platform was destined to soon outgrow its name?]]>
I think this is a pretty cool and memorable name. Whether or not the product will be successful remains to be seen, but I do think it’s a good name. What all does this cloud service do?
ok cool
I’m pretty sure XP used to have a background named Azure and it was of water and the beach. I could be wrong, but it does sound familiar. Either way, I think this name will work.
Isn’t this supposed to be some sort of business application? I’ve heard rumors, but I’m not exactly sure what it’s supposed to be. Any idea, David?