Trying to read aerospike's front page to figure out what it is reminds me of this: http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

"A system"? Not sure what you mean by that.

To me, it was immediately apparent that they are making the whole word Aerospike look like a rocket, a motif they repeat through their home-page.

Worker 1: "The server has fallen over."

Worker 2: "I'll go restart it."

See also: The frequent interchangeability of the words "system" and "computer".

My co-worker glanced at my screen and thought I was reading about erospike, which has a decidedly different feel, especially given the phallic imagery on the page.

Really? When I look at it I only see an eye (viewed in profile) with the legs of the A being eye lashes.