A3Cube is on the cutting-edge of computer technology and the company provides solutions to business problems the world over. As A3Cube’s website says, “the company transforms ordinary servers into ultra-powerful supercomputers”. At the heart of A3Cube is its founder, president and CEO Antonella Rubicco.
In charge of executing A3Cube’s strategic plan, Rubicco has worked tirelessly to build business into the “baby-Cray”. Rubicco has worked for over a decade in computing and is on the forefront of industry treads. Rubicco’s success hasn’t gone unrecognized. The supercomputer expert was selected to the Founder 50 Club by Dell.
Rubicco has taken A3Cube to the next level of computing, and she plans to continue the company’s ascent. Of course, she will have her dog Walter right next her. Together, anything is possible for Rubicco, Walter and A3Cube.
Totalprestige Magazine spoke to Rubicco about her company and her career in the computing industry.
Antonella, can you please tell us know about A3Cube and the services you provide?
A3Cube pioneers the transformation from the high-performance computing systems to high-performance data systems. We strongly believe in the importance of providing better equipment to the community to extol the maximum value from all the data collected. A3Cube designs and build supercomputers with a different approach. We created the perfect platform for big data, analytics, high-performance computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The platform is the perfect combination and balance of hardware and software where all the single components are combined together to extol the maximum of performance. Our systems are turnkey solutions, ready and simple to use, very fast (the lowest latency on the market), extremely powerful, efficient, balanced, flexible and cost effective.
We started from the consideration that the end users (scientist and general users) are not system engineers. For them, the computer is a tool. The tool must be easy to use, so they can be focused on their job.
Please tell us how the company began and what some of the highlights have been?
The idea behind the company began 20 years ago. Our CTO, at that time a student at university, arrived with the idea that it must be possible to transform ordinary servers into extraordinary supercomputers. So, we started to investigate. After several years of research and testing, we were able to build the first prototype of our ‘personal supercomputer’. We had the confirmation that it was possible to transform standard hardware into something of extraordinary powers. After that, we hired our actual team, founded A3Cube and transformed the prototype into an industrial products.
Can you please describe your main products and solutions?
We can divide A3Cube products in two different series: The “Personal Supercomputing” Family, and the “Exa-Supercomputing” Family
Both product families are complete plug and play turnkey solutions.
The “Personal Supercomputing” series starts from one up to 24 processing nodes. The solutions are called F-730 Family platform and DB Turbo-IO. They are specifically designed for MySQL, Maria DB acceleration, Greenplum, and Cassandra.
These solutions were designed to provide a powerful, flexible, and scalable system for small organizations that are looking for dedicated high-performance personal equipment that adjusts to their needs and workloads and do not need internal ITs.
The Exa-Supercomputing family are our cutting edge systems. They are rack level solutions and the products are: KIRA-CS, KIRA-CS Hybrid, KIRA-DATA and KIRA-EMTA™
Each of these system are designed to address specific needs in big data analytics, HPC, data mining, ML, and AI, with a deep optimization in both software organization and hardware architecture. They can scale up to thousands of computing cores, terabytes of memory, hundreds of GPUs that can be shared in a unique way.
Antonella, who can benefit from A3Cube and how?
Financial institutions, research centers, applications like new drugs discovery, security, anti-terrorism, anti-fraud, genomics, are some of the fields that can have the maximum advantages from our solutions.
A3Cube is perfect for all these companies where the time matter and wasting time means wasted opportunities and lost chances.
Today, the new imperative has become to generate value from data and to be able to take smart actions from them. A3Cube provides the perfect and unique tools to reach these goals.
Antonella, what have you learned about yourself while running your business?
When I started this adventure, I had no experience. My background was scientific, not business. So, I re-started studying a lot and kept my attention on the success stories and what happened around me that could have a connection with my job. I collected thousands of data pieces from the market, about products and about companies and I investigate each of them for their pros and the cons. I deeply annualized how venture capitalist are connected to each other in many different investments, and analyzed where they fail. So, I discovered that I have a good capability of analyzing situations to collect data and use it in the appropriate way. I developed a good capability to organize and manage people and I discovered that I am a good mediator. Talking to my partners, they underline that I have a new, different and unusual way to run the business, and very appreciated that is giving great results.
Please let us know what sets A3Cube apart from competitors?
It is difficult to give an answer. A3Cube products are the result of the Blue Ocean analysis.
The Blue Ocean analysis, on the contrary of the ordinary Red Ocean analysis, is based on finding the uncovered needs of the market. Instead of generating competition, it identifies how to create partnerships collocating the products in a strategic position against the actual market proposition. This is a more complex approach, but there are many success stories that demonstrates how powerful it can be. Our solutions are covering the market that other companies, also in the same field, don’t cover. We can say that we are complementary. To give a good explanation, for us Cray (the supercomputer company) is our inspiration, but we cover a section of the market where it is not present. Our solutions start from one up to 1000 nodes. Cray doesn’t have a small system with all the features that our systems have. In fact, one of Cray‘s engineers, during an event, called us baby-Cray.
What is the most challenging part of your work?
Managing a company is not easy. Every day there is a new challenge and new situation to deal with. Probably the most challenging part is to coordinate the technical team with the business needs without cutting the creativity and the motivation needed to reach the company milestones in time. The time management in a company is also a critical aspect of the business and also one of the sneakiest enemies to manage. The two most important aspect of a company are time and money and both are strictly correlated. If you lose the time control, which happens in many big companies, you lose money and opportunities. Last but not least, making decisions for the success of the company, even if that decision is in contrast to my personal vision, but it is important for the company’s success. The company must be always first.
What do you have your sights set on next?
First, growing the company, and moving ahead with the A3C roadmap, make it a healthy company, and becoming the best place to work. The second step is to create new research groups focused on the different areas of scientific research, which can contribute to improving conditions and quality of life. Creating what I call the “gym for the brains” in which the knowledge, the exchange of ideas and the discussions become something that can really improve the world and people.
Were you ever influenced by other entrepreneurs?
Obviously, successful entrepreneurs with success stories and companies. Larry Ellison for strength and determination, believes in his company without any compromise. Mariacristina Gribaudi, a woman who is the mother of six children, CEO of a secular company and president of a big cultural association, gives the best in all these roles. As the inspiration of the past, Adriano Olivetti, who gave the definition of the social function of the entrepreneur, and has created the foundations for an ethical company where profit must be the consequence of the quality of the work. The life inside the company is not the main goal.
What is a day in your life like?
My days are more or less the same: meetings, calls, emails, papers. Sometimes my program is modified for some critical things to do first, but everything is part of the normal life of the company.
Between 8:30 and 9:00, it is mandatory to have breakfast in the office with my dog, an English cocker spaniel, whose name is Walter. He wants his milk and biscuits, after which we can start working non-stop. This ritual has a positive effect on the quality of my work. Having my dog with me at work helps me enjoy the time even during strong hours of work. It help me to take breaks, and it has positive sides on many other aspect of the day.
For me, the important part of the day is dinner. It’s the moment when my husband and I have time to relax and talk without limits of time, and we have the best ideas and find the best solutions for our personal life.
Although the days seem, all the same, there are daily progresses that make every day special and this drives us to do more and do better.
What makes you smile?
I like simple things, children, the elderly couples who love each other as if it were the first day, remembering my mother and Walter, our English cocker spaniel.
What scares you?
The time scares me. To not have enough time and in particular to waste time.
It doesn’t mean that I am scared to age or get older. I celebrate every single birthday and I declare my age, the time must pass, but I don’t want to waste it.
What is your greatest achievement?
In my opinion, it has not arrive yet. I have the confirmation that I’m working in the right direction (Dell Founders 50 Club, Top 10 Game-Changing Startup, Member of the SV Executive Forum, Member non-executive of Tundra System Global, Advisor at InnoVitsLab) but there is still other work to do.
What is your secret talent?
I don’t know if we can talk about secret talent, but what I think that my natural ability to listen and talking to people has helped me a lot. My sense of humor, not taking situations too seriously, enjoying what I’m doing and saying what I think without offending anyone are what I consider my “talents”. Over the years, all these things have supported me in my work and have made me achieve good results.
Which historical figure do you most admire?
Frederick II (Frederick II of Svevia) was a Roman emperor in the early 1200s. He was incredibly modern and anticipated the times. He managed to merge the best of the western and the eastern cultures. At his court, he picked up the best minds of that time and created, for example, a medical code that was used until 1800. He also believed that science was the basis of everything and that the education of the people is the most important aspect in a modern society. He gave access to education for everyone. He respected the different cultures and traditions. In fact, in his kingdom, there were Muslims and Catholics. Muslims also played strategic roles. He was able to create something that now seems impossible.
Antonella, do you have any hobbies?
I love reading, I like biographies and historical books, and I like listening to music. I also, like going for very long walks in the weekends.
What are you never without?
My husband and our cocker. I like chatting with my husband for hours.
Can you share two of your favorite quotes with us?
“The fish stinks from the head”. – my grandma Giustina
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama.
What have you sacrificed for success?
I do not think I can talk about sacrifices. I have been working on this project for more than 20 years and most of the choices have been made to reach the next step where necessary. I cannot say that I scarified something, rather I can say that I made a choice.
Of course, as the philosopher Pascal used to say, “every time you make a choice all the other options are over”, but I think it’s part of life.
What advice would you give to anyone starting a new business?
Believe in your idea without any compromise even if other people do not understand and say you’ll never succeed.
Always keep in mind that you have the same right and the same dignity as all other companies, independently from the physical dimension of the company, and when you talk to them you are in the same position.
Stay away from the “experts” or the “guru” who provide advice, in particular, if they are former employees or managers and have never managed their own business. Always follow your feelings and your ideas. Most of the people that talk are not able to do what you are doing, so what they said has no value.
Last but least, enjoy your adventure. The day when you’re not happy with what you’re doing, it’s time for a change. Nothing is impossible, you need to have determination and patience, and remember that goods results takes time, shortcuts can be attractive but they can also kill you quickly.
For more information on Antonella Rubicco and A3Cube, please visit www.A3cube-inc.com.
