Hi! I'm

Federico Calò

Software Developer | Technical Writer

I create modern web applications and custom digital tools to help businesses grow through technological innovation. My passion is combining computer science and economics to generate real value.

Contact Me

About Me

My passion for computer science was born at the Technical Commercial Institute of Maglie, where I discovered the power of programming and the fascination of creating digital solutions. From the start, I understood that computer science was not just code, but an extraordinary tool for turning ideas into reality.

During my studies in Business Information Systems, I began to interweave computer science and economics, understanding how technology can be the engine of growth for any business. This vision accompanied me to the University of Bari, where I obtained my degree in Computer Science, deepening my technical skills and passion for software development.

Today I put this experience at the service of businesses, professionals and startups, creating tailor-made digital solutions that automate processes, optimize resources and open new business opportunities. Because true innovation begins when technology meets the real needs of people.

My Skills

Data Analysis & Predictive Models

I transform data into strategic insights with in-depth analysis and predictive models for informed decisions

Process Automation

I create custom tools that automate repetitive operations and free up time for value-added activities

Custom Systems

I develop tailor-made software systems, from platform integrations to customized dashboards

const federico = {
  nome: "Federico Calò",
  ruolo: "Sviluppatore Software",
  città: "Bari, Italia",
  missione: "Aiutare attraverso l'informatica",
  passioni: [
    "Codice Pulito",
    "Innovazione",
    "Crescita Continua"
  ]
};

La Mia Missione

Credo fermamente che l'informatica sia lo strumento più potente per trasformare le idee in realtà e migliorare la vita delle persone.

Democratizzare la Tecnologia

La mia missione è rendere l'informatica accessibile a tutti: dalle piccole imprese locali alle startup innovative, fino ai professionisti che vogliono digitalizzare la propria attività. Ogni realtà merita di sfruttare le potenzialità del digitale.

Unire Informatica ed Economia

Non è solo questione di scrivere codice: è capire come la tecnologia possa generare valore reale. Intrecciando competenze informatiche e visione economica, aiuto le attività a crescere, ottimizzare processi e raggiungere nuovi traguardi di efficienza e redditività.

Creare Soluzioni su Misura

Ogni attività è unica, e così devono esserlo le soluzioni. Sviluppo strumenti personalizzati che rispondono alle esigenze specifiche di ciascun cliente, automatizzando processi ripetitivi e liberando tempo per ciò che conta davvero: far crescere il business.

Trasforma la Tua Attività con la Tecnologia

Che tu gestisca un negozio, uno studio professionale o un'azienda, posso aiutarti a sfruttare le potenzialità dell'informatica per lavorare meglio, più velocemente e in modo più intelligente.

Parliamone Insieme →

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Master SQL

RoadMap.sh

November 2024

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Oracle Certified Foundations Associate

Oracle

October 2024

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People Leadership Credential

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September 2024

💻 Languages & Technologies

Java

Python

JavaScript

Angular

React

TypeScript

SQL

PHP

CSS/SCSS

Node.js

Docker

Git

💼

12/2024 - Present

Custom Software Engineering Analyst

Accenture

Bari, Puglia, Italy · Hybrid Analysis and development of computer systems through the use of Java and Quarkus in Health and Public Sector. Continuous training on modern technologies for creating customized and efficient software solutions and on agents.

💼

06/2022 - 12/2024

Software analyst and Back End Developer Associate Consultant

Links Management and Technology SpA

Experience analyzing as-is software systems and ETL flows using PowerCenter. Completed Spring Boot training for developing modern and scalable backend applications. Backend developer specialized in Spring Boot, with experience in database design, analysis, development and testing of assigned tasks.

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02/2021 - 10/2021

Software programmer

Adesso.it (prima era WebScience srl)

Experience in AS-IS and TO-BE analysis, SEO evolutions and website evolutions to improve user performance and engagement.

🎓

2018 - 2025

Degree in Computer Science

University of Bari Aldo Moro

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, focusing on software engineering, algorithms, and modern development practices.

📚

2013 - 2018

Diploma - Corporate Information Systems

Technical Commercial Institute of Maglie

Technical diploma specializing in Business Information Systems, combining IT knowledge with business management.

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Backstage: Spotify's Open Source Developer Portal

Backstage is an open source platform created by Spotify and donated to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2020. It represents today's de facto standard for building developer portals and the foundation upon which many organizations build their Internal Developer Platform (IDP).

Backstage solves a problem every growing organization faces: tool and information fragmentation. Instead of navigating between dozens of dashboards, wikis, repositories, and tools, developers find everything in a single portal: the service catalog, documentation, templates for new projects, deployment status, and performance metrics.

In this article, we will explore Backstage's architecture, its core components, how to configure and customize it, and how to build custom plugins to integrate it with your ecosystem.

What You'll Learn

Backstage architecture: frontend, backend, database, and plugin system
Software Catalog: how to model and manage all organization services
Software Templates: scaffolding new services through the portal
TechDocs: documentation as code integrated into the portal
Plugin development: creating custom plugins to integrate your tools
Deployment: Kubernetes, Docker Compose, and production configuration

Backstage Architecture

Backstage has a modular architecture based on three main components:

Frontend (App): React single-page application providing the user interface. Highly customizable through themes, layouts, and frontend plugins
Backend: Node.js/Express server handling APIs, authentication, database, and backend plugin orchestration
Plugins: independent modules that add functionality. Each plugin has a frontend and/or backend component. The ecosystem includes hundreds of plugins for integrating tools like GitHub, Kubernetes, PagerDuty, Datadog, and many more

This plugin architecture is Backstage's true strength: it allows starting with core features and progressively adding integrations without ever having to rewrite the platform.


# Backstage: app-config.yaml configuration
app:
  title: "Company Developer Portal"
  baseUrl: https://backstage.company.io

organization:
  name: "Company Inc."

backend:
  baseUrl: https://backstage.company.io
  listen:
    port: 7007
  database:
    client: pg
    connection:
      host: #123;POSTGRES_HOST}
      port: #123;POSTGRES_PORT}
      user: #123;POSTGRES_USER}
      password: #123;POSTGRES_PASSWORD}

auth:
  environment: production
  providers:
    github:
      production:
        clientId: #123;AUTH_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID}
        clientSecret: #123;AUTH_GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET}

integrations:
  github:
    - host: github.com
      token: #123;GITHUB_TOKEN}

catalog:
  import:
    entityFilename: catalog-info.yaml
    pullRequestBranchName: backstage-integration
  rules:
    - allow: [Component, System, API, Resource, Location, Template, Group, User]
  locations:
    - type: url
      target: https://github.com/company/backstage-catalog/blob/main/all-components.yaml
    - type: url
      target: https://github.com/company/software-templates/blob/main/all-templates.yaml

Software Catalog: The Heart of Backstage

The Software Catalog is Backstage's central component. It is a centralized registry of all software components in the organization: services, libraries, APIs, infrastructure resources, documentation, and teams. Each entity in the catalog is described by a YAML file called catalog-info.yaml residing in the component repository's root.

The catalog supports several entity types:

Component: a service, library, or application
API: an interface exposed by a component (REST, gRPC, GraphQL, events)
System: a logical grouping of components forming a system
Resource: an infrastructure resource (database, S3 bucket, Kafka cluster)
Group: a team or organizational unit
User: an individual user in the organization


# catalog-info.yaml: service definition in the catalog
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: checkout-service
  description: "Service for checkout and payment management"
  annotations:
    github.com/project-slug: company/checkout-service
    backstage.io/techdocs-ref: dir:.
    pagerduty.com/service-id: PXXXXXX
    grafana/dashboard-selector: "checkout"
    sonarqube.org/project-key: checkout-service
  tags:
    - typescript
    - nestjs
    - payments
  links:
    - url: https://checkout.company.io/api/docs
      title: API Documentation
      icon: docs
    - url: https://grafana.company.io/d/checkout
      title: Grafana Dashboard
      icon: dashboard
spec:
  type: service
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-checkout
  system: e-commerce
  providesApis:
    - checkout-api
  consumesApis:
    - payment-gateway-api
    - inventory-api
  dependsOn:
    - resource:checkout-database
    - resource:checkout-redis
---
apiVersion: backstage.io/v1alpha1
kind: API
metadata:
  name: checkout-api
  description: "REST API for checkout operations"
spec:
  type: openapi
  lifecycle: production
  owner: team-checkout
  system: e-commerce
  definition:
    $text: ./openapi.yaml

Software Templates: Scaffolding from the Portal

Software Templates are Backstage's scaffolding engine. They allow developers to create new services, libraries, or infrastructure components directly from the developer portal, following the organization's Golden Paths.

The typical flow is:

The developer selects a template from the catalog (e.g., "REST API Microservice")
Fills in a form with required information (name, team owner, technical options)
Backstage executes a series of automated steps: code scaffolding, GitHub repository creation, CI/CD setup, catalog registration
In a few minutes, the developer has a working service with all best practices built in

Software Templates Impact

Organizations adopting Backstage Software Templates report a 75% reduction in time-to-first-deploy. A new microservice that previously required 2-3 days of setup is now operational in 15-30 minutes, complete with CI/CD, monitoring, and documentation.

TechDocs: Documentation in the Portal

TechDocs is the documentation system built into Backstage that implements the docs-as-code paradigm. Documentation lives in the service repository as Markdown files, is automatically compiled, and made accessible through the developer portal.

The benefits of TechDocs are:

Co-location: documentation lives alongside the code, so it gets updated together
Discoverability: all documentation is searchable from a single point in the portal
Standardization: uniform format for all organizational documentation
Automation: compilation and publishing are automatic via CI/CD


# mkdocs.yml: TechDocs configuration for a service
site_name: Checkout Service
site_description: "Technical documentation for the checkout service"

nav:
  - Home: index.md
  - Architecture:
    - Overview: architecture/overview.md
    - Database Schema: architecture/database.md
    - API Design: architecture/api-design.md
  - Development:
    - Getting Started: development/getting-started.md
    - Local Setup: development/local-setup.md
    - Testing: development/testing.md
  - Operations:
    - Deployment: operations/deployment.md
    - Monitoring: operations/monitoring.md
    - Runbook: operations/runbook.md
  - ADR:
    - 001 - Database Choice: adr/001-database-choice.md
    - 002 - Cache Strategy: adr/002-cache-strategy.md

plugins:
  - techdocs-core

markdown_extensions:
  - admonition
  - codehilite
  - pymdownx.superfences
  - pymdownx.tabbed

Plugin Development

Backstage's true power lies in its plugin ecosystem. Beyond the hundreds of community plugins, every organization can create custom plugins to integrate their internal tools, dashboards, and workflows.

A typical Backstage plugin comprises:

Frontend plugin: React components that add pages, cards, or tabs to the interface
Backend plugin: APIs and server-side logic consumed by the frontend
Common package: TypeScript types, interfaces, and utilities shared between frontend and backend

The most popular plugins in the ecosystem include: Kubernetes (pod and deployment visualization), GitHub Actions (workflow status), PagerDuty (on-call and incidents), Grafana (embedded dashboards), SonarQube (code quality), and Cost Insights (cloud cost analysis).

Deploying Backstage

Backstage can be deployed in several ways, depending on the organization's needs:

Kubernetes: the recommended method for production, with Helm charts or custom manifests
Docker Compose: ideal for local development and small teams
Roadie: managed SaaS version of Backstage, for those who prefer not to manage infrastructure


# Kubernetes deployment: Helm values for Backstage
backstage:
  image:
    registry: ghcr.io
    repository: company/backstage
    tag: latest

  replicas: 2

  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 512Mi
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 1Gi

  extraEnvVars:
    - name: POSTGRES_HOST
      valueFrom:
        secretKeyRef:
          name: backstage-db-credentials
          key: host
    - name: GITHUB_TOKEN
      valueFrom:
        secretKeyRef:
          name: backstage-github-token
          key: token

  ingress:
    enabled: true
    host: backstage.company.io
    annotations:
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
    tls:
      - secretName: backstage-tls
        hosts:
          - backstage.company.io

postgresql:
  enabled: true
  auth:
    database: backstage
    username: backstage
  primary:
    persistence:
      size: 10Gi

Practical Advice

Start with a minimal Backstage installation: Software Catalog + TechDocs + 2-3 essential plugins (GitHub, Kubernetes, a monitoring tool). Add plugins progressively based on developer feedback. A portal that is too complex at launch risks confusing rather than helping.