Windows Azure was introduced during the opening day keynote address at the professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles at the end of October. Following the departure of Bill Gates from his day-to-day role with the company, Microsoft embarked on the path of Software-plus-Services under the leadership of Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie. Windows Azure is essentially a Windows operating system designed for the Cloud, Microsoft increasing in this manner its collection of platforms – client, server and mobile. 

"Windows Azure is a new Windows offering at the Web tier of computing. This represents a significant extension to our family of Windows computing platforms from Windows Vista and Windows Mobile at the experience tier, Windows Server at the enterprise tier, and now Windows Azure being our Web tier offering, what you might think of as Windows in the cloud," Ozzie stated at the time.

However, Azure itself has left some PDC 2008 participants scratching their heads, and this is evident in the video embedded at the bottom of this article. The first item on the list of questions about Azure is the actual label. Microsoft has managed to pick a trademark that is capable of producing quite a consistent volume of pronunciation variations. And while undoubtedly variety is always beneficial, this aspect is bound not to help establish a Windows Azure brand, albeit it is capable of creating a rather funny attempt to break linguistic barriers.

"You can think of Windows Azure as a new service-based operating environment specifically targeted for this new cloud design point, striking the best possible balance between two seemingly opposing goals. First, we felt it was critical for Windows developers to be able to utilize existing skills and existing code," Ozzie added. "But at the same time, even with that familiarity, even in trying to create a familiar environment for developers, we need to help developers recognize that this cloud design point is something fundamentally new, and that there are ways that Windows Azure needs to be different than the kind of server environment that [they] might be used to."


The Azure Services Platform … Ashure … Azyouwere ??