

Microsoft drops the Azure branding - DenDen
http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-renames-azure-services

======
solutionyogi
Generally, I will never say something like this for any team, but in this
case, I have to say it. Microsoft needs to fire their branding team.

First, Windows Live and now this. Make up your mind already. Think little bit
more before you decide your branding so that you don't have to change it a
year down the line.

Personally, I don't think there was anything wrong with 'Azure' brand. The way
to build the brand would be to offer such a fantastic product that everyone
associates 'Azure' with Microsoft's cloud offering [E.g. no one 'Searches'
anymore, they 'Google' it]. Changing names around only creates confusion and
nothing more.

~~~
bunderbunder
Is it that, or is it that they're firing their branding team a bit too often?
Or that they don't really have one at all?

A lot of stores I've read suggest that Microsoft generally leaves various
divisions and teams within the company to fend for themselves, marketing-wise.
Any stabs they make at doing any company-wide re _-branding always smell more
like a PHB's flight of fancy than the brainchild of a marketing genius to me.

_ Always re.

------
maslam
I work on Azure (billing, to be specific) and helped make this change. We
looked at the bill and decided to simplify it. That's all. I'm amazed at how
bloggers took this out of proportion - this is not part of some uber-corporate
rebranding move. Relax, people.

~~~
ScottWhigham
Can you confirm whether the email quoted in the article is, in fact, the
entire email that was sent out? If it is, it's just too vague; I think anyone
reading that email would think, "They are dropping the Azure brand/name" given
the recent "Windows Live" re-branding. I also think that a _lot_ of people
hated "Windows Live" so strongly that they might have been rooting for another
"See how dumb MSFT marketing is?" moment.

------
rabidsnail
Does Microsoft have a group that does nothing but rebrand their services? I
can see a rebrand of one product once in a while, but they've been making a
habit of it.

~~~
Michiel
Yes, Marketing

------
jimueller
The article doesn't really match the headline as this really only confirms the
change to billing.

~~~
nigelsampson
Agreed, the title feels very "link baitish", the text of the email sent out
says they're changing the names of the Azure services in the usage reports.

IMO this makes sense, if I'm receiving an Azure Usage Report I don't need to
see a line item for "Azure CDN" when "CDN" covers it perfectly well.

There's nothing indicated anywhere that there is any change to the Azure brand
at all.

No story here, move along.

------
gm
Hrmm.. I think the REALLY IMPORANT thing to notice is not that they dropped
"Azure" but that they dropped "Windows" as well. Everything in the list that
had "Windows" in it, does not have it anymore.

This is a step in the right direction if MS wants to survive long-term.

------
vyrotek
Heh, I literally just read the email from the Azure team right now. I'm not
quite sure it means they're rebranding everything though. There's a lot of
money put behind the Azure name.

But, simplifying the features and service names would be a good move. I've
been with Azure since the early beta days and the branding and naming of
services was always confusing. In fact, I missed many features early on simply
because I had no idea what they were packaged under.

------
mdwrigh2
I think this is a smart move by MS. The name Azure didn't cause people to
immediately think of cloud services, while this renaming makes it much more
clear.

------
shinratdr
Alt headline: Microsoft continues to misunderstand the concept of branding.

~~~
dromidas
Alt Alt Headline: Creator of this Hacker News article has misunderstood the
difference between labels in your billing and product branding.

