Cortado Workspace - if they build it will customers come?

Henning Volkmer, President / CEO of Cortado (formally known as ThinPrint), spent some time with me to discuss why his company's name was changed and what its new targets were. In short, the company saw an opportunity to take its mature content delivery technology and use it in a new way.

In the past, the company was known for providing intelligent services that allowed all sorts of devices to effectively print on network printers. Before ThinPrint did its magic, these devices had no way to print. While this seems a rather mundane task, printing is a very important function for most users of information technology.

To perform this magic, the company had to develop some very effective content delivery services. These small devices had limited processing power, limited internal memory and very limited storage.

The company decided that its technology could be used to deliver cloud workspaces to clients of all sizes and capabilities. To reflect that changing mission, the company changed its name to Cortado.

Here's how Cortado describes its Workspace technology

Cortado Workplace

Cortado Workplace is the central hub for your mobile requirements. Whether with smartphone, tablet, PC, Mac or notebook - Cortado Workplace allows round-the-clock access to your files and documents. Exchange them between devices and work on the go just as with your desktop PC.

• 2 GB free online storage
• Round-the-clock access anywhere to your files and documents
• Connect your Workplace as a cloud drive to a PC or Mac
• Work on the go just as on your desktop PC
• Mobile printing and faxing

Cortado Corporate Server

Seamlessly and securely integrate smartphones and tablets into your corporate IT and give employees the ability to work on the go as if on a desktop computer

iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices are becoming more and more popular in everyday business. Integrating these devices into corporate IT poses a large challenge to administrators because of the wide variety of devices with varying operating systems and security features. Cortado Corporate Server provides users with the solution for different mobile platforms. It gives employees with smartphones and tablets secure access to the corporate network and allows them to use the traditional desktop functions while on the go, almost like at their workstation in the office.

Snapshot analysis

More and more people are working with a constellation of handheld, intelligent devices. While the PC or Laptop is still important to them, a great deal of their work is now being supported by these lightweight, small devices. Cordato appears to have recognized this trend and decided that many would be served just as well by an private, on-premise, or public, off-premis, cloud-based service.

While I'm not sure that there is a stampede to services such as those being offered by Cortado, I would suspect that a trickle of organizations would be interested today and a larger stream of customers might come tomorrow.

We'll have to watch them to see how it goes. The technology looks sound. Will the customers come?