When your phones, your network or your client records depend on a technology company, it helps to know what kind of company it is. Some resell other people’s products. Some install and support them. We do those things too, but at our core we are something less common: a company that builds its own technology.
That has been true for 36 years as a technology company. Here is how we got here, and why it matters to the businesses that rely on us.
It started with engineering software
Finite Technologies was founded in Alaska in 1990, with a grant from the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation. Our first commercial product was FTIDOE, a commercial version of the DOE-2 building energy simulation program. Engineers used it to model how buildings use energy, and we sold it worldwide on the computer systems of the day: VMS, DOS, Windows, Unix, Ultrix and AIX.
Writing serious engineering software for that many different systems taught lessons we still rely on. Software has to be correct, not just impressive. It has to run where the customer’s work actually happens. And when something goes wrong, the people who wrote it need to be able to find out why.
Our founder, Scott Henderson, is an engineer and mathematician. He has founded five companies and worked on engineering projects across Alaska, the rest of the United States and Russia. That engineering habit, of understanding how a thing works before trusting it, runs through everything we do.
Early to the Internet
We went online in 1993, before the Internet opened to business. From that experience came FTSC, which built statewide Internet and data network services under the name arctic.net. According to its 1998 press release, FTSC had provided Internet and data services statewide since 1995 before it was sold to TelAlaska in 1998.
We also built ResponseNet, crisis-management software whose primary client was BP, for its Alaska oil-spill response. It closed in 2001. Each of these ventures was different, but they had one thing in common: when the right tool didn’t exist, we built it.
IBeX: software other providers run on
In 2002 we began developing IBeX, our cloud communications software. Version 1 followed in 2003, and IBeX OS came in 2004. Today IBeX is designed and written by FTI in Anchorage and licensed to service providers worldwide. Its fourth-generation switch operating system launched in the first quarter of 2026.
IBeX also led to IBeXc, our hosted business phone system. It began as our own in-house test of IBeX and has run on our own equipment in Anchorage ever since.
From software to services
Over the years, the same skills turned into services. Our managed IT services are built on Kaseya and secured with Sophos, with AI-assisted operations that put the full picture in front of our engineers. Our secure web hosting and virtual server hosting run in a specialized, highly secure environment, and every client is onboarded by our own team.
We are also building new software solutions. OpCnTr, software for answering services, is projected to be ready for client installation in the fourth quarter of 2026. Lunnul, club software for shooting ranges, is in private beta, with release expected in late Q4 2026.
Why this matters to you
Building our own technology isn’t a point of pride for its own sake. It changes what we can do for clients.
- We understand the whole stack. When something breaks, we don’t stop at “call the vendor.” We know how software and networks behave underneath, which helps us find real causes rather than symptoms.
- We can build when buying won’t do. Most of the time, a good existing product is the right answer, and we’ll say so. When it isn’t, we can build.
- You talk to the people who know. For our own solutions, the team supporting you works alongside the team that wrote the software.
- We choose partners carefully. Because we know what goes into good software, we are demanding about the products we recommend, such as Sophos for security and Microsoft 365 for email and office work.
- We are here for the long run. We have been Alaskan-owned by the same family since 1990. We plan in years, not quarters.
How we build today
Today we use AI in how we design, build and support technology. It helps us draft, test, review and document faster. It doesn’t replace experience: AI is far from perfect, and experienced people direct and check every piece of work. The tools have changed many times since 1990. The habit of building carefully hasn’t.
Talk to people who build
Whether you need managed IT, a hosted phone system, secure hosting or software built for the way your business works, you will be working with a team that understands technology from the inside. Read more of our story on our About page.
