14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is getting ready to rebrand yet another product after SkyDrive and Office Web Apps, again in an attempt supposed to help users better understand the purpose of the service.
ZDNet is reporting via unnamed sources that Redmond is planning to rename Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure, with a public announcement to be made tomorrow. The change will come into effect on April 3 at the BUILD 2014 developer conference, the same source notes.
The reason is obviously Microsoft’s intention to make it very clear that Windows Azure is not a product that’s aimed at the Windows platform exclusively, as the service also provides support for Oracle databases and cross-platform solutions, such as PHP, Java, and Python.
At the same time, Microsoft is also working hard to show customers that the company isn’t all about Windows, its flagship operating system that’s still dominating the desktop world, but trying to make a name for itself in the tablet sector.
“Azure delivers a 99.95% compute SLA and enables you to run solutions on the same cloud that powers Skype, Office 365, Bing, and Xbox. Azure provides built-in software patching, network load balancing and high-availability features. Azure offers 24x7 technical support with engineers constantly monitoring service health,” Microsoft says about its product, but without disclosing a word on such a potential rebranding.
Microsoft seems to pay much more attention these days to the marketing impact of its products’ names, as the company has decided to rebrand some of the services improved lately in order to better reflect their purpose.
SkyDrive, for example, was rebranded in order to settle a trademark dispute in the United Kingdom, but Microsoft obviously used this move to emphasize that it’s renaming the service to OneDrive in order to make it easier for users to keep all their files in a single place.
“We know that increasingly you will have many devices in your life, but you really want only one place for your most important stuff. One place for all of your photos and videos. One place for all of your documents. One place that is seamlessly connected across all the devices you use. You want OneDrive for everything in your life,” Microsoft said in late January when it announced the rebranding of SkyDrive.
Office Web Apps has also been renamed to Office Online, make it a bit clearer that you can use this version of the productivity suite right in your browser.
In the end, it might seem that Microsoft is indeed heading in the right direction, but the company still has a very long way to go to fix all the mistakes made in the last few years.