As Lightedge celebrates the new year and exciting things to come in 2018, we took the opportunity to look back and reflect on the major accomplishments and milestones that this previous year brought. As we close the book on 2017 and ramp up for the new year, we’d like to take this time to share with you a few things we were grateful for this past year.

A Deepened Midwest Commitment

This time last year, Lightedge made the resolution to deepen our investment and commitment in each of the Midwest communities we call home. In doing so, we were active members in 22 different organizations throughout Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas City. Lightedge team members donated their time to over a dozen local groups and charities with a special emphasis on those that benefit children in need and their families. As we move into 2018, we plan on continuing to grow this level of charitable engagement.

Not only were we active members in each community, we also solidified our financial commitment to the Midwest by investing in top-of-the-line data centers in Omaha, Altoona, and Kansas City. In August, we expanded our Kansas City, MO facility to offer Disaster Recovery seats for our customers. In September, we acquired the Cabela’s data center to further expand our footprint in Omaha, NE. Finally, in October, we opened our second, $30M data center in Altoona, IA the same year our flagship facility celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Sales Development Expansion

2017 was a major year for product launches and customer growth. We developed eight new offerings to further build out our expansive cloud, colocation and Disaster Recovery portfolio. Most notably, we launched vSOC powered by QRadar and Workplace Cloud with GPU. We also added several new vendors to our growing list of industry-leading partners. Overall, we saw our new customer base increase by 13%, and conducted client surveys across our markets to get a pulse on what they value most in service delivery, technology solutions, and IT provider partnership. The results overwhelmingly showed that our customers see us as a trusted advisor and an extension of their IT team. That’s exactly what we have been striving for, and plan to only strengthen these relationships in 2018 and beyond.

Company Culture

None of our accomplishments listed above would have been possible without our customers’ trust and continued support. In addition to their valued partnership, we owe an immense amount of gratitude to the talented internal team that makes up Lightedge. In 2017, we hired 30 new individuals to add to our group of the best and brightest around. In addition to the fresh faces, we are proud of our executive team and innovative leadership. The majority of that group has been in place for over 15 years of our past 21 years in business, maintaining the one-of-a-kind culture and values we pride ourselves on.

Our strong financial backing and support from the Anschutz Corporation is another source of our continued growth. It’s this loyalty, culture, and drive of all our combined members that makes us who we are.

Overall, 2017 was a monumental year that the team at Lightedge is extremely thankful for. We cannot wait to see what 2018 has in-store for our business, our customers, and our communities.