Los Angeles (CA) – Windows gave us a first idea about its future cloud computing model earlier today, which can, depending on your understanding of cloud computing, be described as a services platform or as a cloud computing operating system. But the name “Azure” surprised us a bit, so we dug a bit deeper into the origins of this word and found that Microsoft may be pitching a cloud without clouds to us. Is the name Azure branding brilliance or a blunder?

Microsoft brand names got a lot more interesting lately, especially since the company decided to drop the “Vista” brand and replace it with “7” – to highlight simplicity. In the case of the new cloud service, however, simplicity apparently was not the focus and Microsoft chose what it calls an “aspirational” name – “Azure”. Besides the fact that it seems that different languages will pronounce “Azure” differently, we were wondering what Azure actually stands for? Let’s look.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “azure” dates back to about 1325 and was adopted into the French language through a false separation of the Arabic word lazaward to "lapis lazuli". Lapis Lazuli is a gem with deep blue color and translates to stone (lapis) of azure (azuli). The Arabic word lajward points “to a place in Turkestan, mentioned by Marco Polo, where the stone was collected,” according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.  

Of course, azure is typically connected with a certain pure blue color and is tied to a blue tincture in history and heraldry. However, its meaning in heraldry is simply interpreted as “blue”. So, our first conclusion is that Windows Azure is a fancy name for Windows blue and nothing special as a result.

However, Dictionary.com lists a few more hints at today’s meaning of the adjective azure. Quote:

1. of or having a light, purplish shade of blue, like that of a clear and unclouded sky.
2. Heraldry. of the tincture or color blue.
3. the blue of a clear or unclouded sky.
4. a light, purplish blue.
5. Heraldry. the tincture or color blue.
6. the clear, cloudless sky.
 
In the environment of cloud computing we can’t help but note the meaning of a “cloudless sky”. We here at TG Daily aren’t sure, whether Microsoft went that deep into the meaning of Azure, since a possible contradiction should have been apparent. A “cloudless sky” for a cloud computing services environment. Shouldn’t we have at least one cloud in “the cloud”?

However, you could also see Azure simply as a sign for a “gem” or as a way to remove the clouds as a symbol for confusion from cloud computing.

We will leave it up to you to decide whether it is an appropriate name for the new software, but we find the choice of “Azure” interesting nevertheless – as a name that contradicts the Windows 7 naming strategy and its possible application target.   

More on this topic: Oops! Microsoft forgets to trademark 'Windows Azure' (Computerworld)