Microsoft to Drop the Azure Service Branding

Microsoft is getting ready to make some changes to the naming scheme of its Azure services, the company has informed customers.

The modification should take place in the coming weeks, and will not affect the services themselves, or the prices they are available at.

In the new naming scheme, the “Azure” term disappears almost completely, the latest reports on the matter suggest.

For example, “Windows Azure Compute” will become “Cloud Services” following the change, while “Windows Azure Platform – All Services” will be known simply as “All Services.”

As part of the change, SQL Azure will become “SQL Database,” while the SQL Azure Reporting Service will be known simply as SQL Reporting.

The name of other services will also be modified, as can be seen in the table below, available courtesy of ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley. In fact, there is a strong possibility that all of the company’s Azure services will undergo this change.

“In the coming weeks, we will update the Windows Azure Service names that appear in the usage records you download. These are only name changes – your prices for Windows Azure are not impacted,” Microsoft reportedly informed customers.

Additionally, the company announced that the privacy policy for these services has been updated, and that customers should have a look at it.

“The new version includes the same commitments we previously made to maintain the privacy of your personal information, while adding more detailed information,” the company stated.

For the time being, no official explanation on why this change occurred has been provided. However, the Redmond-based company might offer details on the matter soon.

Chances are that Microsoft is looking into new ways of better aligning its on-premises and cloud services, and that the re-branding scheme would be part of this process.

At the moment, the company is offering cloud components for all of its Windows products, so that users could easily take advantage of a mix of on-premises and cloud solution in ways that would fit their needs.

The rebranding of Azure products is not the only one taking place at the moment in the company’s campus. Only last week, the software giant announced plans to drop the Windows Live name, and it also turned Microsoft Advertising for SMBs to “Bing.”