Founded in 1984 by Franco Farnedi, f.technology quickly made a name for itself, starting as an Apple partner and growing into a leader in web solutions.
Initially, the company bridged the gap between traditional graphic design and the emerging Internet industry. But as technology evolved, so did the f.technology. In the early ’90s, the company was a leader in web development for graphic design agencies using Macintosh systems. This was back at a time when websites were mostly built from scratch using tools such as Dreamweaver.
In the 2000s, the f.technology was an early adopter of WordPress, setting the stage for its specialized web services.
Today, f.technology focuses on advanced software development, website maintenance, and hosting. “We create custom WordPress sites for agencies using the latest technologies,” says the team. They primarily work with the Sage theme on the Bedrock framework, ensuring that their sites are robust, secure, and fast. They also handle projects with visual builders and different themes to meet different agency needs.
In a recent interview, CEO and Founder Franco Farnedi shared insights into how f.technology’s partnership with Kinsta has revolutionized its service offerings and empowered it to provide its clients with advanced web solutions that stand the test of time.
Snapshot
- Sector: Software Development
- Company size: 20 employees
The Problem
In the past, f. technology has cycled through various web hosting providers like Flywheel, Liquid Web, WP Engine, and Pantheon. However, these companies’ lack of innovation and development eventually drove them away. They want a hosting provider that never falls behind in performance and security—one that is continuously reinventing and innovating its solutions.
A service that works well but is static, stuck in what it was doing two years before, worries us. If we don’t see innovation, we don’t see evolution, and we start looking around.
Demand for higher service quality and tighter security
f. technology demands that their hosting provider meets the same high standards of quality and reliability that they guarantee their customers. “We require a hosting service that aligns with our commitment to high-quality and reliable service,” noted Franco. “This includes robust security measures, as cybersecurity is a strong focus within the company.”
“For this reason, we have always chosen leading hosting technologies, thinking more about the quality of the service than the margin we could make on the sale. For us, a server that offers solid security guarantees is a must.”
Limited customization and technical limitations
f.technology evaluates potential hosting services based on several stringent technical and operational criteria:
- Reliable DNS: “DNS is often overlooked until it fails, yet it’s crucial for site functionality. We invest significantly in premium DNS services to ensure reliability,” explained Franco.
- Powerful managed hosting: One that supports PHP workers as a measure of computational power, offers substantial disk space, and can handle complex setups like Multisite and ecommerce platforms.
- Built-in features and developer tools: The availability of staging environments, integration with CI/CD systems like GitHub, and sufficient bandwidth and CDN services were also non-negotiables for f. technology.
We have always focused on the service that provides the highest quality in terms of offering, security, performance, uptime, H24 support, and scalability. This is our philosophy.
Non-negotiable hosting rules
The golden rules of f. technology when choosing hosting services are as follows:
- Each hosting service must be isolated and not shared with other clients.
- Hosting services must be transferable without IP changes.
- Essential features include a one-click restore backup option and a control panel for sub-user access.
- The hosting provider must facilitate interactions with centralized, automated management systems via API.
- A 24-hour help desk must be accessible to the end customer.
“Kinsta meets all these requirements. Its hosting solutions align perfectly with our rigorous standards,” shared Franco.
The solution
Customized hosting solutions for agency needs
“Finding a hosting provider that could meet such a long list of requirements was a challenge. We tried many, and in the end, we were most satisfied with Kinsta. Its solutions cover all our hosting needs. And Kinsta has one essential quality: it is constantly evolving.“
Partnering with Kinsta has transformed how f.technology supports its clients with a broad range of managed services tailored to their needs. From routine security checks to proactive software updates, Kinsta’s powerful infrastructure supports it all.
Google’s most powerful servers on Premium Tier Network
Kinsta is powered by Google Cloud Platform’s fastest servers and Premium Tier Network with 35+ data centers worldwide. This means reduced latency, increased site speed, and the ability to handle traffic spikes without downtime for all their Kinsta-hosted clients. With Kinsta managing the backend, Franco and his team can confidently ensure fast, secure, and worry-free websites for all their clients.
Additionally, every site on Kinsta’s platform runs in an isolated software container. Each container contains all the software resources required to run the site—Linux, NGINX, PHP, MySQL—making each site 100% private. Linux containers are the underlying container technology for our infrastructure. This means f. technology won’t have to share any software or hardware resources, not even between their own client sites.
Industry-standard security with Google Cloud and Cloudflare integrations
Two powerful firewalls protect all Kinsta-hosted sites at all times. GCP’s IP-based protection firewall and Cloudflare’s enterprise-level firewall are in place to defend against direct attacks on its network. Kinsta also automatically detects and blocks brute force attacks on websites, ensuring enhanced security for f.technology’s clients.
Kinsta provides top-notch security with a fully managed Web Application Firewall (WAF) that is constantly updated to protect against the latest threats. All web traffic is routed through Cloudflare, which offers DDoS protection by blocking harmful connections. Additional Kinsta features, such as free SSL certificates and an IP deny tool, make maintaining site security easier for f.technology.
MyKinsta plus built-in developer tools
MyKinsta analytics reports for data analysis and performance insights. It also simplifies site management for f. technology with features like a built-in APM tool, analytics, redirects, and more. Kinsta’s integration with development tools like GitHub and its REST API allows its team to maintain high-performance sites with less effort.
Additionally, MyKinsta’s multi-user access allows for fine-grained permissions, so f.technology can add any number of users to its team. Users can have access to all sites, just billing, or add them as developers or administrators to a subset of their sites.
Daily backups and multiple staging environments
At Kinsta, daily automatic backups are standard, with the option to perform on-demand backups. These automatic backups are triggered before key actions like pushing a staging site live.
In addition, having multiple staging environments gives the f. technology team the confidence to test changes thoroughly before going live. Plus, the premium staging environment that matches live site resources is also beneficial in helping them optimize their client sites to the fullest.
24/7/365 expert WordPress support
Kinsta is noted for its high-quality customer support. A team of experts is available 24/7/365 to help f. Technology and its clients with any hosting or WordPress-related issues. Additionally, our team runs proactive monitoring that checks each Kinsta-hosted site every three minutes or 480 times a day for optimal performance and security.
Free CDN and edge caching
Kinsta’s integration with Cloudflare offers a free CDN service across its plans. This reduces content delivery times globally while also providing HTTP/3 support. Additionally, Kinsta’s edge caching feature further optimizes page load times by storing cache closer to users.
And with full page caching at the server level, the content from Kinsta-hosted sites is delivered instantaneously to visitors. We pair that with our in-house Kinsta MU plugin to provide granular control over caching.
The result
Double-layered support for 200+ WP site
Integrating Kinsta into f. technology’s operations allowed it to improve its “managed hosting squared” system. This setup provides two layers of support: f.technology manages direct client interactions and initial troubleshooting, while Kinsta offers in-depth technical support all year round.
Having Kinsta as the backbone of our hosting infrastructure means we can promise to deliver reliable and high-quality support to all our clients. Today, 80% of our hosting business is on Kinsta. That’s about 200 sites!
“Kinsta is our number 1 provider because they’ve never let us down. They continuously evolve, which is very important for us,” Franco explains.
Guaranteed service quality with Kinsta
Franco always points out how important good hosting is for their tech services. “When we talk about our tech services with clients, we make sure they understand the benefits of using a certified hosting provider, which is what we offer,” he says. “This ensures top-notch upkeep, safety, and performance, even if the clients decide not to buy hosting directly from us.”
By integrating Kinsta’s solutions into its WP-Help package, f.technology takes its services to the next level. This allows the company to provide the scalable, secure, and fast services that it promised its clients.
“The hosting provider is key to our tech services as it influences everything we offer. This is why we push our clients to switch to Kinsta. It’s important for us.”
To get more clients to choose certified hosting providers, f.technology introduces an exclusive Security package for Kinsta-hosted sites:
“For clients on other hosts, we provide a basic monitoring service to ensure proper upkeep and safety. However, the full range of our services really stands out on a certified platform like Kinsta’s, where we can take full advantage of advanced features to provide top-quality service,” Franco adds.
Upgraded WordPress maintenance services
“Our WP-Help package is an offer to end customers and agencies. Our WP-Help offer is for people who have a WordPress site and want to outsource support to us. We take care of maintenance, security, backups, and emergencies.”
The WP-Help package includes enhanced features thanks to Kinsta’s robust infrastructure:
- Daily security monitoring: Kinsta runs vulnerability scans every 3 minutes, which f.technology complements with its proprietary monitoring tools. This dual-layer monitoring ensures that clients are informed promptly about potential security risks, sometimes receiving alerts from both services.
- Worry-free backups: In addition to f.technology external backups stored for up to 90 days, Kinsta’s comprehensive backups provide its clients with additional data security and peace of mind.
- Optimized performance: With Kinsta, f. technology can confidently ensure high-speed performance for all its hosted clients. These clients benefit from the same hardware and data centers that Google uses for its own products.
Peace of mind with expert support 24/7/365
Kinsta’s round-the-clock support was crucial during an incident where a client’s site was severely compromised:
“One memorable night, we were under attack. The site had been wiped clean. But thankfully, Kinsta’s support was quick to action. They stayed in chat with us for hours and hours over the weekend, analyzing and patching up the vulnerabilities until we fully resolved the issue.”
Franco concludes, “Kinsta’s reliability and our proactive service package combine to provide peace of mind for our clients, ensuring their WordPress sites are always in good hands, even when my team is off-duty.”
Summary
f.technology relies on Kinsta’s industry-leading hosting to power over 200 client sites, providing double-layered support, powerful hosting, and reliable site maintenance. In fact, 80% of f.technology’s hosting business is now on Kinsta’s platform.
Kinsta’s hosting solutions have greatly enhanced f.technology’s ability to deliver reliable, high-quality service, making Kinsta their preferred provider due to its continuous innovation that meets their stringent standards.
“Working with Kinsta, we can now provide cutting-edge hosting services that adapt to what our customers need, which strengthens our reputation for being reliable and innovative,” concludes Franco Farnedi, founder and CEO of f.technology.
