Provider Profile
Lightedge Solutions for IBM Power: Independent Profile
Lightedge runs the largest independent IBM Power private cloud in North America by its own count, and since May 2026 it also resells IBM's Power Virtual Server. Here's what the company publishes, where its own pages contradict each other, and what to confirm yourself.
Independent profile, not sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsed by this provider.
What is Lightedge Solutions?
Lightedge Solutions is a US colocation and managed services provider with a dedicated IBM Power practice covering IBM i and AIX. It offers managed Power cloud capacity on its own POWER6 through Power10 fleet, colocation for customer-owned hardware, and IBM Power disaster recovery with published recovery objectives in its service level agreement. Since May 2026 it also resells IBM Power Virtual Server, so it can place you on its own hardware or on IBM Cloud and manage either. It bought Connectria in April 2024, which is where most of its IBM i book came from, and the Connectria brand still operates its own website. Linux on Power is not offered. Confirm capabilities, current IBM i release support, and attestation scope with Lightedge directly.
At a Glance
Lightedge Solutions Specifications
Everything below is drawn from what Lightedge Solutions 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
| Provider type | Managed IBM Power cloud on its own hardware, colocation, DRaaS, and, since May 2026, an IBM Power Virtual Server reseller |
|---|---|
| Ownership | Private equity. GI Partners has held a controlling interest since September 2021 and the company has completed five acquisitions since, most recently a 3 MW Kansas City facility in April 2026 |
| Footprint (vendor-stated) | 13 metros: Ashburn VA, Austin TX, Des Moines IA, Kansas City MO, Lenexa KS, Lewisville TX, Minneapolis MN, Omaha NE, Phoenix AZ, San Diego CA, San Jose CA, St. Louis MO, and Amsterdam. Third-party directories count roughly 16 individual buildings, and the company's own 2024 materials said 18 and then 20. The counts do not reconcile |
| Which sites run Power | Not published on any facility page. Des Moines, Kansas City, Omaha, and Austin appear most often in IBM i material, and the Kansas City SubTropolis site is marketed for IBM i specifically. Get your production and DR buildings named in writing |
| Hardware generations (vendor-stated) | IBM Power models from P6 to P10 per its Power Cloud page. Its two AWS Marketplace listings contradict each other, one saying POWER9 and the other Power10. Power11 appears only as an upgrade or PowerVS path, not as confirmed installed capacity |
| IBM i releases (vendor-stated) | Its own page states a range from v5R4 up to v7R1. Its AWS Marketplace listing states IBM i 5.4, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4, with 5.4 and 6.1 requiring an upgrade, and AIX 7.1 and 7.2. Neither source mentions IBM i 7.5 or 7.6, or AIX 7.3. Confirm your release directly |
| Replication and HA options (vendor-stated) | MIMIX, iTera, and SAN-to-SAN replication, plus automated failover |
| Published DR objectives (from its service level agreement) | Standard DR: 2 hour recovery time objective, with the recovery point objective set by your production disk tier at 24, 12, 6, or 4 hours. Premium DR: 15 minute RTO and 15 minute RPO. Recovery capacity must be contractually reserved in advance, and the RTO commitment applies only to workload inside that pre-committed footprint |
| Managed services (vendor-stated) | Fully managed OS updates, PTF application, job scheduling, and database management, with 24/7/365 US-based monitoring and a 24/7 security operations center |
| Support response (from its service level agreement) | Critical under 15 minutes, high under 30 minutes, moderate under 2 hours, low under 24 hours. Service credits are capped at 50 percent of a month's fees and four months' fees per year |
| Sizing granularity (vendor-stated) | Capacity allocated in 1/10 processor core increments, with memory and storage per GB |
| Compliance claims | HIPAA, HITRUST, PCI DSS, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 22301, ISO 27701, NIST, CJIS, and ITAR. It is also in the HITRUST Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program. No FedRAMP authorization is published. Certification scope is stated at company level, not per facility |
| Hyperscaler connectivity (vendor-stated) | Sub-2ms latency to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud from its facilities |
| Pricing | Nothing published. Quote-only, including on its AWS Marketplace listings |
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 Lightedge Does Well
Points that genuinely differentiate this provider, based on what it publishes and how it is positioned in the IBM Power market.
It can now sell you either platform
Since May 2026 Lightedge resells IBM Power Virtual Server alongside its own private Power cloud, so the same team can manage your workload on Lightedge hardware, on IBM Cloud, or on-premises. That removes the conflict of interest a pure private-cloud provider has when PowerVS is genuinely the better answer.
Recovery objectives are actually written down
Most providers publish no numbers at all. Lightedge's service level agreement states a 2 hour RTO for Standard DR and 15 minutes for Premium, which gives you a documented starting point instead of a negotiation from zero.
Compliance breadth, including the rare ones
Thirteen frameworks including CJIS and ITAR, plus membership of the HITRUST Shared Responsibility and Inheritance Program, which lets you inherit its controls into your own HITRUST assessment. For regulated healthcare and defense-adjacent workloads that shortens the audit conversation considerably.
Colocation and managed cloud under one roof
You can keep some Power hardware you own in a Lightedge facility while moving other logical partitions (LPARs) onto managed capacity, without adding a second vendor relationship. Two of its sites are underground, in Kansas City and Lenexa, which is a genuine differentiator for tornado-belt buyers.
Established replication tooling
MIMIX and iTera are long-standing IBM i replication products. Using them means your recovery approach is not dependent on a proprietary tool only this provider supports.
Fit Check
Is Lightedge a Good Fit?
Best fit
Good fit signals
IBM i or AIX shops that want a single provider for hosting, colocation, and disaster recovery, especially those with HITRUST, CJIS, or ITAR obligations, or those who want the option of moving to IBM PowerVS later without changing managed services partner.
Use caution
Proceed with caution if
Scale claims are the company's own. Being the largest IBM Power managed services provider in North America was Connectria's marketing before Lightedge acquired it in April 2024, and no independent audit of this market exists. Three published details deserve scrutiny: its own Power Cloud page states IBM i support ranging up to v7R1 and its AWS listing stops at 7.4, with no mention of 7.5 or 7.6 anywhere; its published service level agreement is version 38 dated November 2021, which predates the Connectria deal, the current DR tiers, and the PowerVS partnership; and its facility count has been stated as 13, 18, and 20 in different company materials. None of these is disqualifying, but each is a question to put in writing.
Key decision
Decision point
Decide whether you are buying Lightedge's own Power cloud or IBM PowerVS through Lightedge. They have different economics, different ceilings, and different exit paths, and the company now sells both. Ask for a priced comparison of the same workload on each before choosing.
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.
Whether IBM i 7.5 and 7.6 are supported
Nothing Lightedge publishes mentions either release, and its own page tops out at v7R1. This is almost certainly stale marketing copy rather than a technical limit, but get current release support confirmed in writing before you plan an upgrade around it.
Which building your LPARs actually land in
A 13-metro footprint does not mean every site runs Power, and no facility page states Power availability. Get the specific data center and the DR pair named, and confirm the distance between them meets your recovery requirement.
Compliance scope per facility
The 13-framework list is stated at company level. Given growth by acquisition, ask for the SOC 2 report and the HITRUST scope letter and read the facility list inside them for the specific room your workload will sit in.
DR test frequency and reserved capacity
Test cadence is not published anywhere, and the recovery time commitment only applies to capacity you have pre-committed and paid for. Pin down how many tests per year are included, what extra tests cost, and exactly how much reserved capacity you are buying.
Which contract paper governs
The service level agreement on its site is dated November 2021. Confirm it is the operative document in 2026, or get the current one, and check whether the PowerVS resale sits under the same terms or under IBM's.
Named support coverage
No IBM i or AIX engineer headcount is published, only a combined 120 years of experience claim. Ask how many engineers hold current IBM i or AIX certifications, where they sit, and what the escalation path looks like at 2am.
Exit terms and data portability
Ask what it costs and how long it takes to get your LPARs and backup data out, and who owns the replication licences if you leave.
Lightedge Solutions FAQ
Does Lightedge sell IBM Power Virtual Server?
Yes, as of May 2026. It announced PowerVS support that month and IT Jungle covered it in June 2026. Customers can run IBM i and AIX on-premises, on Lightedge's own private Power cloud, or on IBM Cloud PowerVS, all managed by Lightedge. It joined Fresche Solutions, Meridian IT, and CloudFirst as independents reselling PowerVS.
Is Connectria the same company as Lightedge?
Yes. Lightedge acquired Connectria in April 2024, and roughly 1,000 IBM i logical partitions came with it. Two years on, connectria.com is still a separate, separately branded website with its own service pages, though sales enquiries route to a Lightedge address. If you are comparing quotes from both, you are comparing two quotes from one company.
Does Lightedge support Linux on Power?
No published support. Its IBM Power pages name IBM i and AIX only, and no Lightedge or Connectria page mentions Linux on Power, RHEL, or SUSE on Power. If Linux on Power is part of your estate, that points toward IBM PowerVS or another provider.
Can Lightedge host an older IBM i release?
Older releases are one of its stated strengths. Its AWS Marketplace listing names IBM i 5.4 and 6.1 as supported with an upgrade, and 7.1 through 7.4 outright, alongside Power hardware from P6 to P10. That is further back than most providers will go. Confirm your exact release and any third-party software dependencies before planning a move.
What recovery time does Lightedge commit to?
Its service level agreement states a 2 hour recovery time objective for Standard DR, with the recovery point objective tied to your production disk tier at 24, 12, 6, or 4 hours, and 15 minutes for both objectives on Premium DR. Two catches: recovery capacity must be contractually reserved in advance for the commitment to apply, and if you bought bulk disk on the production side your contractual RPO is 24 hours.
Is Lightedge a good fit if I also need colocation?
It is one of the stronger options for a mixed estate, since colocation and managed Power capacity come from the same provider and the same facilities. Confirm that cross-connect and network charges between the two are quoted up front rather than billed separately later.
Sources
- Lightedge: IBM Power Cloud
- Lightedge: IBM Power managed services
- Lightedge: IBM Power DRaaS
- Lightedge: service level agreement (v38, November 2021)
- Lightedge: certifications and compliance
- Lightedge: data center locations
- AWS Marketplace: Lightedge IBM Power Systems (supported OS releases)
- IT Jungle: Lightedge to start selling IBM PowerVS to IBM i customers (June 2026)
- IT Jungle: Lightedge acquires Connectria (April 2024)
- Current IBM i release support, DR test cadence, and pricing. Request directly from Lightedge
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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