14 DAY TRIAL // As rumored a few days ago, Microsoft decided to rename Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure, a name change that would take place in early April during the BUILD 2014 developer conference.
While the company hasn’t said it clearly enough, it turns out that the Windows Azure rebranding was necessary to better emphasize the purpose of the service which isn’t focused only on Windows, but also on some other services and technologies.
“Today we are announcing that Windows Azure will be renamed to Microsoft Azure, beginning April 3, 2014. This change reflects Microsoft’s strategy and focus on Azure as the public cloud platform for customers as well as for our own services Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Bing, OneDrive, Skype, and Xbox Live,” Microsoft announced in a press statement today.
Of course, the BUILD 2014 event is the right moment for Microsoft to implement this change because it would thus be able to communicate with developers directly and get feedback much faster than in the traditional way.
Microsoft has, however, started a rebranding process that was aimed at more products than Windows Azure, with both SkyDrive and Office Web Apps receiving new names supposed to better emphasize the purpose of the respective services and made them easier to use.