Onlight

What Onlight does

Onlight, Inc. is a privately held IT solutions provider headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded in 2001 as a spinout from alpha dot net, the first independent commercial ISP in Milwaukee. The company serves small-to-mid-market and enterprise clients across multiple verticals including financial services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, and real estate, with a horizontal segmentation approach. Its core offerings span network infrastructure (EDGE Device router/firewall, Multipoint VPN, Oasis multi-homing internet continuity), data storage (ZFS-based NAS/SAN), communications (Asterisk PBX, custom email/groupware), private cloud (Nextcloud deployment), and network monitoring (Presager), built primarily on open-source foundations including FreeBSD, ZFS, Asterisk, Linux, LDAP, and Nextcloud.

The business model combines hardware sales of proprietary appliances priced between $1,795 and $12,500, professional services and consulting engagements, and a nascent subscription rental option for the Oasis Wireless product at $275 per month. Go-to-market is sales-led and consultation-driven, with direct customer acquisition through the company website, phone outreach (414-272-4477 x210), and relationship-based selling evidenced by long-tenured testimonials from enterprise clients. The company positions itself on open-source expertise, data sovereignty, and infrastructure resilience rather than price competition.

Onlight is described as a small team with over 75 years of combined technical experience, with staff who have contributed to upstream open-source projects including ZFS, LDAP, and email systems. The company has no disclosed institutional investment, no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no publicly reported revenue. Recent strategic activity is limited to a Nextcloud technology integration and trademark registration for the EDGE Device, with no acquisitions, fundraising, or leadership changes on record.

Name

Onlight

Legal name

Onlight, Inc.

Website

https://onlight.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Onlight, Inc. is a privately held Milwaukee-based IT solutions provider founded in 2001, delivering open-source-based networking, storage, communications, and private cloud products and consulting services to small-to-mid-market and enterprise clients across multiple verticals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

IT Infrastructure Solutions

NAICS

Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

Product/IoT & Smart Device Support (Consumer/Industrial IoT) (BPAAACAH)

Keywords

• IT infrastructure solutions
• Network consulting services
• Open-source IT support
• Internet continuity appliances
• Custom enterprise hardware

Headquarters

HQ city

Milwaukee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Hardware sales: Sale of proprietary appliances including Oasis internet continuity devices (TC1000, Wireless, DC2000, TC3000 ranging from $1,795 to $12,500), custom high-end workstations, and EDGE devices.
2. Professional services and consulting: IT consulting, network integration, project management consulting, open-source software support, Asterisk PBX integration, and implementation services. Billed via contract engagement.
3. Device rental: Oasis Wireless available as rental option at $275/month.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Onlight designs, sells, and supports proprietary IT infrastructure hardware and software products—including the Onlight EDGE Device, Oasis internet continuity appliances, custom workstations, ZFS-based storage, Multipoint VPN, Presager network monitoring, Nextcloud private cloud, Email & Groupware, and Asterisk VoIP/PBX—alongside professional IT consulting, project management, and open-source software support services for small, mid-market, and enterprise business customers.

Product overview

Onlight offers a portfolio of IT solutions anchored by hardware and software products spanning networking, storage, communications, and cloud services. The core product line includes the Onlight EDGE Device (router/firewall), Oasis (multi-ISP internet continuity), Multipoint VPN (automated mesh VPN), Presager (network monitoring), Nextcloud Private Cloud, Email & Groupware, Asterisk VOIP/PBX, ZFS-based Data Storage, and Custom Workstations. These are complemented by professional services including IT Consulting, Project Management Consulting, and Open-Source Software Support. The offering is a platform-plus-services model where Onlight engineers design, integrate, and support each product independently or as part of a broader infrastructure engagement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Oasis: Multi-homing internet continuity solution that manages multiple ISP connections to ensure 24/7 internet availability with load balancing and bandwidth aggregation.
• Presager
• Onlight Intelligent EDGE Device
• Multipoint VPN

Products and services

• Onlight EDGE Device A cost-effective, high-performance router/firewall device providing WAN, VPN, DNS, and LDAP services on a FreeBSD platform, enabling robust network architectures without Microsoft server dependency. Features centralized database configuration management with git-based auditing and roll-back/roll-forward capabilities.
• Oasis Internet Continuity An internet continuity solution managing multiple ISP connections to ensure 24/7 availability, offering dynamic load balancing, bandwidth aggregation, and transparent failover without BGP. Available in TC1000 ($1,795), Wireless ($2,195 purchase or $275/month rental), DC2000 ($4,995), and TC3000 ($12,500) models.
• Multipoint VPN (MVPN) An automated networking and Multipoint VPN solution anchored by a central database, enabling configuration changes without manual device setup and supporting mesh topology for resilient site-to-site connectivity with redundant pathways around connection failures.
• Presager Network Monitoring A centrally-managed network monitoring solution combining open-source tools (Icinga, NetDisco, Cricket, PNP) with automatic network mapping, point-and-click configuration, email/phone/SMS alerts, graphing, reporting, and environmental monitoring integration.
• ZFS-Based Data Storage Solutions ZFS-based NAS and SAN storage solutions with end-to-end data integrity checks, copy-on-write protection, unlimited snapshots, and scalable block or file-level storage protecting against file corruption, hardware failures, viruses, and ransomware.
• Nextcloud Private Cloud An open-source on-premises file sync, sharing, and collaboration platform providing calendar, contacts, email, video chat, and office productivity tools on the customer's own servers with HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, FERPA, and COPPA compliance features.
• Email & Groupware Solutions Custom-crafted, standards-based email servers, filters, gateways, and archive solutions built on Postfix, Cyrus, and Roundcube for mission-critical communication needs.
• Asterisk VoIP/PBX Systems Open-source Asterisk-based IP PBX, VoIP gateway, and conference server solutions offering voicemail, call queuing, IVR, and multi-protocol telephony support (SIP, H.323, IAX).
• Custom High-End Workstations Custom-built professional workstations using Threadripper and high-end Intel processors, tailored for CAD, graphic design, video editing, and gaming workloads.
• IT Consulting Services Network integration, consulting, and professional services covering firewall design, WAN architecture, VPN deployment, router configuration, and network security policy.
• Project Management Consulting Project management consulting including planning, coordination, collaboration tools optimization, and PM platform selection and implementation (Basecamp, Trello, Asana, Jira, Teamwork, Smartsheet, Airtable, Monday, ClickUp).
• Open-Source Software Support Linux and open-source software support and development services, with over 75 years of combined experience in email systems, Usenet, compilers, network monitoring, VPN, and infrastructure on Unix, Linux, and FreeBSD.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99.9%+ internet reliability with Oasis multi-homing
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Nextcloud GmbHcoreTechnology or IntegrationOnlight offers installation, configuration, and support for Nextcloud, the open-source on-premises file share and collaboration platform. Onlight is not affiliated with Nextcloud GmbH and their offering is not backed by Nextcloud GmbH services. Nextcloud enables file sync, sharing, calls, chat, web meetings, calendar, contacts, email, and office productivity on customer's own servers.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Synology: Synology is a broader NAS and storage incumbent whose rackmount and desktop appliances overlap with Onlight's ZFS storage offerings. While Synology uses Btrfs/ext4 instead of ZFS, it competes for the same SMB and prosumer storage buyer.
• Sophos: Sophos offers UTM firewalls, SD-WAN, and managed detection & response as a broader incumbent in network security. Sophos competes with Onlight's EDGE Device in the SMB firewall segment but with a much wider portfolio.
• Paessler (PRTG): Paessler's PRTG is a commercial network monitoring platform that overlaps with Onlight's Presager offering. Both serve IT teams needing centralized visibility, alerting, and environmental monitoring, though PRTG is a much larger commercial platform.

Direct peers

• iXsystems: iXsystems builds TrueNAS, the leading open-source ZFS-based NAS/SAN platform. It is the closest direct competitor to Onlight's ZFS storage appliances, serving the same SMB and enterprise customers requiring on-premises storage with end-to-end data integrity.
• Mushroom Networks: Mushroom Networks provides multi-WAN bonding and failover appliances comparable to Oasis, targeting the same SMB market segment that needs ISP redundancy and bandwidth aggregation without BGP complexity.
• Puget Systems: Puget Systems builds custom high-end workstations for CAD, video editing, and professional workloads — directly comparable to Onlight's custom workstation line built on Threadripper and high-end Intel processors for demanding professional applications.
• Peplink: Peplink specializes in multi-WAN SD-WAN routers that bond and load-balance multiple ISP links, directly competing with Onlight's Oasis product line for SMB and enterprise customers that need 99.9%+ internet uptime without BGP.
• Netgate: Netgate sells pfSense, an open-source FreeBSD-based firewall/router that directly parallels Onlight's EDGE Device and ZFS-based networking appliances. Both target SMB and mid-market customers seeking enterprise-grade networking without Microsoft server dependencies.
• Scale Computing: Scale Computing provides hyperconverged infrastructure for SMB and edge use cases, competing with Onlight's integrated networking+storage+monitoring stack for small businesses that need turnkey on-premises infrastructure.
• Sangoma (FreePBX): Sangoma owns FreePBX, the dominant open-source Asterisk-based PBX distribution, directly competing with Onlight's Asterisk VoIP/PBX consulting and integration services for SMB phone-system deployments.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Onlight