Provider Profile

Kyndryl for IBM Power: Independent Profile

Kyndryl is IBM's former infrastructure services arm and the largest IBM i and AIX managed services organization in the world by staff. It also owns the only platform running real IBM Power hardware inside Microsoft Azure. Here's what the company publishes, and the corporate questions a buyer should weigh alongside it.

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What is Kyndryl?

Kyndryl is the infrastructure services business IBM spun off in November 2021, now a roughly 15 billion dollar, 72,000-person public company listed as KD. For IBM Power it offers two distinct things. Kyndryl Cloud Uplift, formerly Skytap, runs real IBM Power hardware inside Microsoft Azure data centers and is sold as self-service infrastructure rather than a managed service. Separately, Kyndryl Cloud for IBM i is its own private cloud, where it claims 500 IBM i specialists managing over 2,500 partitions, and it sells managed wraps around both. It is the only provider that can put Power inside a hyperscaler's own facility other than IBM itself. Weigh that against a February 2026 accounting review, executive departures, disclosed material weaknesses in internal control, and a workforce reduction currently reaching delivery teams.

At a Glance

Kyndryl Specifications

Everything below is drawn from what Kyndryl publishes. Items marked vendor-stated are the provider's claims, not independently verified figures: treat them as questions to raise, not as confirmed specifications.

IBM i
AIX
Linux on Power

Kyndryl IBM Power capabilities as published by the provider
Provider type	Global IT services company. Two IBM Power routes: Cloud Uplift infrastructure inside Azure, and Kyndryl Cloud for IBM i, its own managed private cloud, plus managed service wraps around both
Corporate	Spun off from IBM on 4 November 2021, listed on the NYSE as KD, headquartered in New York. Around 72,000 employees across 60 countries at 31 March 2026, down from roughly 90,000 at separation. FY2026 revenue 15.1 billion dollars, broadly flat, with Kyndryl Consult at 3.5 billion and growing
Cloud Uplift lineage	Kyndryl acquired Skytap in May 2024 and rebranded the platform Kyndryl Cloud Uplift. Skytap.com now redirects to Kyndryl, though the documentation still lives at help.skytap.com
Where Cloud Uplift runs	Native IBM Power hardware inside Microsoft Azure data centers, across roughly 13 named Azure regions in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. Kyndryl markets 15 global locations
Important: Power on IBM Cloud has ended	Cloud Uplift discontinued IBM Power service on IBM Cloud and in its US-West region on 31 August 2025 when POWER8 reached end of maintenance, and retired the IBM Cloud offering entirely on 31 March 2026. Cloud Uplift for IBM Power is now Azure-only
Operating system support (vendor-stated)	IBM i 7.1 through 7.6, an unusually wide range that includes releases most clouds will not take. AIX 6.1 through 7.3. Linux on Power via RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntu. POWER9 and POWER10 hardware
IBM i partition ceiling (vendor-stated)	Four vCPUs maximum per IBM i partition on both POWER9 and POWER10, between 530 and 42,472 CPW, with 512 GB of memory on POWER9 and 1024 GB on POWER10. The four-vCPU ceiling is the single most important constraint here
Licensing (vendor-stated)	No bring-your-own-licence. Kyndryl states that Cloud Uplift does not support the use of customer on-premises data center licences. IBM i is billed as an attached licence priced by vCPU count. If you already own your entitlements, model this before comparing headline compute prices
HA and DR (vendor-stated)	PowerHA is available as an optional licence package, and Precisely Assure MIMIX is supported, though the MIMIX arrangement requires IBM i 7.3 or higher and exactly two nodes. Cross-region replication between Cloud Uplift regions is supported. Db2 Mirror is not named anywhere
Published SLA	99.95 percent platform availability for Cloud Uplift. No numeric recovery time or recovery point objective is published for Cloud Uplift or for Kyndryl's resiliency orchestration service
Support structure (vendor-stated)	Tiered by number of virtual machines and priced as a percentage of monthly charges with a cap. Only the top tier is 24x7x365; lower tiers run Sunday afternoon to Friday evening US Pacific time, leaving a weekend gap for anything below severity 1. New subscriptions default to a paid tier
Kyndryl Cloud for IBM i (vendor-stated)	Its own multi-tenant private cloud, with a claimed 500 IBM i specialists managing over 2,500 logical partitions. Those figures have been published unchanged since 2022, through a 20 percent company-wide headcount reduction, so treat them as dated
Compliance	Cloud Uplift is described as holding SOC 2 and SOC 3 attestations and complying with ISO 27001 and PCI DSS. Kyndryl corporate holds ISO 27001, 9001, 20000, 14001, 27701 and others, plus TISAX and HDS. No FedRAMP authorization could be found for any Kyndryl offering
Pricing	No rate card. Cloud Uplift bills metered RAM by the minute, cumulative storage, public IPs, networks, and IBM i licences separately, transacted through the Azure Marketplace and eligible to draw down an Azure consumption commitment. Reserved capacity is available at reduced rates

Vendor pages last checked August 2026. Providers change offerings without notice: confirm current details directly.

Visit the provider's IBM Power page →

Where It Is Strong

What Kyndryl Does Well

Points that genuinely differentiate this provider, based on what it publishes and how it is positioned in the IBM Power market.

Power inside Azure, which nobody else offers

Cloud Uplift runs real IBM Power hardware in Microsoft Azure data centers, so your IBM i or AIX partitions sit adjacent to the rest of an Azure estate on the same network and the same bill. Outside IBM's own cloud, this is the only way to get Power inside a hyperscaler's facility.

The widest operating system range in the market

IBM i 7.1 through 7.6 and AIX 6.1 through 7.3. If you are stranded on IBM i 7.1 or 7.2 and every other cloud has turned you away, this platform will take you as you are. Linux on Power is supported too, which several competitors do not offer at all.

Buyable in small units, and on your Azure commitment

Kyndryl's own datasheet says capacity is self-service and available on demand. It transacts through the Azure Marketplace and can draw down an Azure consumption commitment, so infrastructure can be bought without an enterprise procurement cycle.

Genuine depth in IBM i and AIX operations

Kyndryl inherited IBM's infrastructure services business, including around 300 IBM i customers at separation, and claims 500 IBM i specialists managing over 2,500 partitions on its own private cloud. It also runs an RPG academy. No independent provider fields anything of that scale.

One supplier across mainframe, Power, and distributed

If your estate spans IBM Z, IBM Power, and x86 across multiple countries, Kyndryl can cover all of it under one global contract. Gartner named it a Leader in its 2025 Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing Services.

Fit Check

Is Kyndryl a Good Fit?

Best fit

Good fit signals

Azure-committed organizations that want IBM Power adjacent to the rest of their estate, shops stranded on older IBM i or AIX releases that other providers refuse, large multinationals wanting one supplier across mainframe and Power, and teams that have their own IBM i skills and are buying infrastructure rather than a relationship.

Use caution

Proceed with caution if

Two separate cautions. Commercially, base Cloud Uplift is explicitly infrastructure, not a managed service: Kyndryl does not support the operating systems themselves at that level, IBM i partitions cap at four vCPUs, there is no bring-your-own-licence option, and round-the-clock support sits only in the top support tier. The managed wrap is a separate, unpriced purchase. Corporately, in February 2026 Kyndryl disclosed that its audit committee was reviewing cash management practices and related disclosures and the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting, following voluntary document requests from the SEC's Division of Enforcement. Its chief financial officer, general counsel, and global controller all departed, and the shares fell more than 50 percent in a day. The company subsequently filed its delayed reports, said it did not expect a restatement, and reported material weaknesses in internal control including tone at the top. A permanent chief financial officer took office in July 2026. Separately, a workforce rebalancing charged at around 200 million dollars for the current fiscal year has been reported to reach delivery teams, the people who run customer systems.

Key decision

Decision point

Decide whether you are buying infrastructure or a relationship. If you have your own IBM i administrator and want Power beside your Azure estate, Cloud Uplift is a strong and genuinely differentiated fit. If you want a named engineer who knows your system and answers on a Saturday, price the managed wrap in full and compare it against an independent IBM Power specialist before committing.

Due Diligence

What to Verify Before You Sign

Take these to the provider in writing. Anything that only exists in a slide deck is not a commitment.

Which region, which POWER generation, and what happens if it is retired
Kyndryl retired IBM Power from its US-West region and from IBM Cloud entirely during 2025 and 2026. Get your Azure region and hardware generation named, and get the migration commitment in writing if that region is ever withdrawn.
That your largest partition fits under four vCPUs
The IBM i ceiling is four vCPUs and does not increase between POWER9 and POWER10. Map your largest partition against it before anything else. If it does not fit, IBM Power Virtual Server is the option with the bigger ceilings.
The licence maths, in full
There is no bring-your-own-licence path. Confirm in writing what the attached IBM i licence charge is for your vCPU count, and add it to the compute number before you compare Cloud Uplift with PowerVS or an independent provider.
What your support tier actually covers at 2am on a Saturday
Only the top support tier is 24x7x365, and new subscriptions default to a paid tier. Get the coverage hours and the severity definitions in writing, and price the tier you would actually need rather than the one you are defaulted into.
The managed service, quoted separately and in full
Base Cloud Uplift does not include operating system support. Get the managed wrap scoped and priced as its own line: PTF application, upgrades, backup administration, monitoring, and escalation, with response times.
Contractual recovery objectives
Kyndryl publishes a 99.95 percent platform availability figure and nothing else numeric. If DR matters, get recovery time and recovery point objectives written in, and confirm whether PowerHA or MIMIX is included or a separate licence.
Who will hold your account after the restructuring
Given a workforce reduction reported to reach delivery teams, ask which delivery organization and which geography will hold your account, and what happens to your named contacts if that team is reduced.
Whether your deal size is one they want
Kyndryl's commercial motion is built around contracts above 50 million dollars, and it signed 40 of them in the twelve months to June 2026. Cloud Uplift is genuinely buyable in small units, but the managed services organization may not prioritise a small account. Ask directly, and ask for a reference of similar size.

Kyndryl FAQ

Is Kyndryl Cloud Uplift the same thing as Skytap on Azure?

Yes. Kyndryl acquired Skytap in May 2024 and rebranded the platform Kyndryl Cloud Uplift. The technology and the Azure-hosted IBM Power hardware are the same lineage that dates back to Skytap's 2019 arrangement with Microsoft. Skytap.com now redirects to Kyndryl, although the technical documentation still sits at help.skytap.com and the Azure Marketplace publisher name still reads Skytap.

Can I still run Cloud Uplift on IBM Cloud instead of Azure?

Not for IBM Power. Kyndryl discontinued IBM Power service on Cloud Uplift for IBM Cloud, and in its US-West region, on 31 August 2025 when POWER8 reached end of maintenance, and retired the IBM Cloud offering entirely on 31 March 2026. An x86 service continues in some IBM Cloud regions. For IBM Power, Cloud Uplift means Azure.

How big can an IBM i partition be on Cloud Uplift?

Four vCPUs, on both POWER9 and POWER10, with 512 GB of memory on POWER9 and 1024 GB on POWER10, and between 530 and 42,472 CPW depending on allocation. That ceiling does not lift with the newer hardware. It is comfortably above a typical one-to-three partition environment, but if a single partition needs more, IBM Power Virtual Server publishes much higher limits.

Can I bring my own IBM i licences?

No. Kyndryl states plainly that Cloud Uplift does not support the use of customer on-premises data center licences. IBM i is billed as an attached licence, priced by vCPU count, either flat monthly or hourly. This is a real commercial difference from providers that allow transferred entitlements, and it should be modelled before you compare headline prices.

Is Cloud Uplift a managed service?

Not at the base level. Kyndryl's own datasheet describes capacity as self-service and available on demand, and its documentation states that Cloud Uplift does not provide support for the operating systems themselves. Managed IBM i services are a separate purchase from Kyndryl or a partner. If you have no in-house IBM i administrator, do not assume the infrastructure subscription covers you.

Should Kyndryl's 2026 accounting review change my decision?

It belongs in your risk assessment rather than being disqualifying on its own. In February 2026 Kyndryl disclosed an audit committee review of cash management practices and internal control effectiveness, following voluntary document requests from the SEC's Division of Enforcement. The chief financial officer, general counsel, and global controller departed and the shares fell more than 50 percent in a day. Kyndryl then filed its delayed reports, stated it did not expect a restatement, and disclosed material weaknesses in internal control including tone at the top. A permanent chief financial officer started in July 2026. For a multi-year infrastructure contract, ask about service continuity commitments, change-of-control provisions, and which delivery organization holds your account.

How does Kyndryl compare with IBM Power Virtual Server?

PowerVS is IBM's own service, is larger, publishes higher per-partition ceilings, and is the option confirmed to offer Power11 and IBM i 7.6 stock images. Cloud Uplift's advantage is that the Power hardware sits inside Azure data centers and bills through the Azure Marketplace, which matters if your organization is standardized on Azure. Our comparison of the three hyperscaler-adjacent Power platforms covers the differences in detail.

Sources

Independent Advisory Notice

Power Systems Advisors is an independent advisory resource and is not IBM. IBM, IBM Power, IBM i, AIX, PowerVM, Power Virtual Server, and other marks belong to their respective owners. Product availability, compatibility, pricing, and support should be verified with IBM or the relevant provider. Recommendations depend on the customer's specific environment.

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