SparkFabrik is the first Drupal Certified Partner Silver in Italy

SparkFabrik is the first Italian company to achieve the Silver level of the Drupal Certified Partner program, the recognition with which the Drupal Association certifies companies that contribute to the ecosystem with code, events, and direct financial support.

It is not an honorary title: it requires a verified minimum threshold of contributions, made by the people who work on the project every day, combined with an annual financial fee. It is proof that the work dedicated to the ecosystem already had weight, even before anyone certified it.

There are decisions that seem tiny on paper, but which, when looked back upon years later, weigh like boulders. Looking at the profiles on Drupal.org of Paolo Mainardi and Stefano Mainardi, one immediately notices a detail: they were opened nearly 18 years ago. At the time, open source was pure digital craftsmanship; there were no enterprise dynamics like today. It was code written at night, patches sent to solve a problem that someone else, on the other side of the globe, would encounter the next day.

But this is not the story of just two people. The other founders and several Sparkers have also been active on the platform for nearly twenty years. Back then, joining the Drupal ecosystem seemed like a small decision. From those roots, a company was born, or rather, an evolution. Even before SparkFabrik, there were Twinbit and Agavee, the companies from which we were born ten years ago, already true Drupal companies back then.

We did not choose this CMS for market convenience: we trained on Drupal, embracing open source. Today we have achieved the Drupal Certified Partner Silver, the first in Italy. But this is not a trophy to put in a display case. It is the exact snapshot of that journey that began nearly two decades ago.

Beyond the badge: SparkFabrik is the company that contributes the most in Italy

The Drupal Certified Partners program certifies with a badge the companies that innovate, advance, and fund the Drupal project ecosystem. These contributions are measured through so-called Contribution Credits. In this sense, these credits mark the boundary between those who merely consume the work of others in the ecosystem and those who take charge of it and give value back.

In the words of our CEO, Stefano Mainardi, for us this is not a marketing badge. It is the financial weight we put behind what we have already been doing for nearly two decades with our own hands, our code, and our time. The Contribution Days, the YouTube interviews with those who built this community. All that persistent and not-at-all glamorous work that is needed to keep a shared project running.

Over time, we have grown enormously. Our evolution toward cloud-native paradigms and modern architectures has led us to embrace DevOps and Artificial Intelligence. But open source has remained the underlying philosophy: not just a tool, but a way of working that promotes collaboration, transparency, and knowledge sharing, in Drupal projects as well as in those for development and cloud-native architectures.

A commitment that we also bring to our memberships. We are members of the CNCF, Linux Foundation Europe, and OpenSSF, with Paolo Mainardi (CTO) on the LFE Advisory Board. The roots remain there, firmly planted in open code.

Becoming a Drupal Certified Partner is the way we add our financial weight to our long-standing craftsmanship. Because open source is free to download, but tremendously expensive to keep alive.

There is another fundamental point. Foundations like the Drupal Association are the only truly neutral ground left. They are the only spaces where vendors, agencies, and individual developers can meet as equals.

Without an independent structure, any open source project would end up swallowed by the commercial interests of a single company. The lack of neutral governance exposes projects to conflicts between parties that have nothing to do with the software itself, as the recent WordPress and WP Engine disaster makes clear.

Financially supporting these foundations is not a strategic move. It is simply the right thing to do, period.

When a company bases its revenue on free software, it has a moral debt toward those who keep that software secure and updated. It is not enough to send a patch every now and then. It requires consistency. It requires ensuring that the infrastructure hosting the code does not collapse.

The Silver level we have reached certifies exactly this balance: a vital financial fee combined with a volume of real Contribution Points, generated by the people who work with us every day. It is the measurement of an invisible commitment that becomes tangible.

Among Italian companies, we believe we are the one that has invested in the Drupal community with the most depth and consistency. We have always done so in a healthy and transparent way, faithful to the values of open source.

Stefano Mainardi, CEO SparkFabrik

The value for clients

Our commitment to open source is a guarantee of value for our clients. It is not a facade. Contributing code, participating in international working groups, organizing events: all this keeps us in constant observation of what is happening in technology, in the ecosystem, and in the market. Not out of curiosity, but because that is how we ensure our clients always have updated and solid solutions.

A commitment that also takes shape through the sponsorship and active participation in many events across Italy, and in the organization of events like Cloud Native Days Italy and DrupalCamp Italy. We do this because we believe that funding the ecosystems in which we ourselves thrive is a concrete responsibility — and it keeps us close to the communities, the technologies, and what is happening before it goes mainstream.

Drupal is the platform chosen for enterprise-level digital projects, such as institutional portals, corporate intranets, and digital service platforms.

In these contexts, a reliable technology partner, capable of being the client’s single point of contact, is an advantage of enormous value.

Choosing the Drupal Certified Partner with the highest real contributions in Italy means reducing project risk, having an interlocutor who knows Drupal from the inside, and ensuring continuity over project lifespans measured in years.

At SparkFabrik, we believe that the best technology is born from the harmony between deep technical skills and solid human relationships. It is a value firmly held in our manifesto and in our vision on AI.

We do not want to be a vertical specialist among ten suppliers: we are the single point of reference in the digital journey of those who choose us. Becoming a DCP is a further confirmation of quality for those who choose us.

Sitting at the table: not just using software, but deciding its future

Supporting neutral infrastructure is only the first step. The real impact comes when you decide not to simply be a passive follower of technological direction, but to help chart it. It means bringing an Italian voice to the international tables that matter.

As a member of the Linux Foundation Europe Advisory Board, Paolo Mainardi actively participates in strategic discussions on open source, AI, and digital sovereignty at the European level.

In January 2026, he was invited to the Drupal Pivot in Ghent to discuss the future of the project directly with global agency leaders, addressing crucial topics such as digital sovereignty and open source for the public sector. It was a moment of exchange that confirmed how vital the choice of Drupal for complex corporate ecosystems is for decision-makers. We didn’t go there to listen, but to bring a concrete vision of where technology needs to go in the coming years.

The recognition of this effort came directly from the top.

“Thank you Stefano Mainardi and the entire team at SparkFabrik for all you do for the Italian Drupal community and for your support in helping the Drupal Association maintain Drupal’s infrastructure and ensure it’s freely available worldwide and to the 8,000+ sites in Italy. I too would like to thank Paolo Mainardi for helping discuss Drupal’s future with agency leaders at Drupal Pivot, Ghent.”

Tim Doyle, CEO Drupal Association

Facts speak louder than intentions. In the last year, we have maintained a very high technical density. We wrote code for the AI Guardrails system of the Drupal AI Initiative, tracked and visible on the official SparkFabrik page on Drupal.org.

On Drupal alone, we have produced over 40 technical articles, a strategic whitepaper dedicated to Drupal as a DXP, and shared 100+ posts on our social channels. It is a constant commitment to promoting the ecosystem, on top of our output on the other topics that are close to us, such as AI, cloud native, DevOps and Security.

Our international presence did not stop in Ghent. We gave talks in 3 sessions at DrupalCon Vienna 2025, at the Drupal Mountain Camp, and at the Drupal Dev Days Leuven, and more recently we were at the Drupal Dev Days 2026 in Athens (we shared our experience here).

We believe enormously in knowledge sharing: we demonstrated this by co-organizing a technical webinar with FreelyGive, and we did so recently with the webinar “Multilingual websites, AI and quality translations in Drupal” together with Lara Translate. This is the difference between using a tool and becoming its custodian.

Rebuilding the Italian community

From global influence, we move to local responsibility. Because we have always cared about supporting the national community. Without commitment and consistency, it risks disappearing: that is why we work every year to strengthen it.

Between 2012 and 2018, we co-organized the DrupalDays together with Bmeme. They were six years of intense, completely self-funded physical events that built a real connective tissue among Italian developers.

Then there was a long period of stagnation. A silence that did not do justice to the talent and dedication of Italian developers.

We never stopped completely. Even during this quieter phase, we continued to invest time and budget in other initiatives, for example by hosting the Drupal Global Contribution Day at our offices in 2025 and 2026.

A project we particularly care about is our online format Talks on my Machine, our way of sharing knowledge and best practices with the ecosystem, completely free of charge. Two editions were dedicated to Drupal: Drupal X Business (2026) and Drupal: Driving Digital Experiences (2024). Gen AI X Business (2025) and Supply Chain Security (2024) explored other topics close to us, and before the end of the year we will be back with a new edition dedicated to AI.

Yet, we knew we needed to look each other in the eye again. We worked to bring back the physical gathering par excellence: first with DrupalCamp Italy 2025 in Rome, bringing 2 sessions to the stage, and now looking to the upcoming edition of DrupalCamp Italy in Bologna, scheduled for October 22nd. We don’t do it to plant a flag or claim records. We do it because we believe that Italian developers need healthy, transparent spaces free of personal agendas to grow together.

It is hard work, but the responses tell us we are on the right track. Even the person who created all this, Dries Buytaert, noticed it, recalling the interview we did with him a few years ago (the first time Dries appeared live at an Italian event).

“Thank you so much for all your support and contributions! 💙”

Dries Buytaert, Founder & Project Lead, Drupal

This is our idea of community. A constant presence that doesn’t hold back when it’s time to roll up our sleeves. Building gathering spaces requires patience. It means managing logistics, communication, and relationships with speakers, taking time away from daily work.

But it is an investment we would make again tomorrow morning, because a healthy ecosystem always gives back a hundred times what it absorbs in terms of energy.

The facts, in summary:

The work continues

Achieving the Silver-level Drupal Certified Partner status, and being the first in Italy to do so, does not represent a finish line. It is rather the validation of a working method. Open source requires care, time, and real investment. It requires companies that choose not to be just spectators.

We will continue to do our part, faithful to the values of open code, working to keep the ecosystems in which we operate neutral and prosperous. The commitment continues, without shortcuts. We will continue to build, line of code after line of code, the community we have always wanted.

We will take the next step together with the community, face to face. See you on October 22nd in Bologna for DrupalCamp Italy: tickets are available and the Call for Papers and Call for Sponsors are open.