Many large tech companies have already invested heavily in quantum technologies, but the massive adoption of quantum computing has had its share of delays and false starts. However, with some recent announcements in the quantum sector, it now seems like the time is right for organizations to take a closer look at quantum and consider how this approach could work for their business workloads. Organizations that have historically focused on classical computing are now positioning quantum for the future.
In a ESG IT spending survey, 11% of respondents indicated that their organizations were testing quantum for a few applications, 17% indicated that they were testing, and 24% of respondents have started research but are years away from production applications. Finally, 27% expressed an interest in quantum computing but took no steps to adopt it.
This slow growth in adoption is about to change – and perhaps soon. As large organizations explore new ways to deliver faster results, accelerate purchase cycles and improve performance, they have become more willing to move away from purely traditional solutions to accelerate adoption of the quantum.
Dynamic change and market alignment
The industry is also discovering new methods and new use cases that can be applied from classical computing platforms to quantum platforms. Take, for example, the recent merger between Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) and QPhoton, a quantum photonics company. Bill McGann, COO and CTO at QCI, discussed the merger.
Based on the information he shared, it appears that the combination of QCI and QPhoton capabilities can deliver a quantum computer that makes quantum systems more accessible to organizations, so they can see business results faster and less. cost. Another benefit of this merger is that the companies are expanding the user base to non-quantum experts, many of whom have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to explore possible quantum problems in areas such as analytical optimization and drug discovery.
By using a comprehensive approach, QCI and QPhoton together offer a unique opportunity to accelerate the delivery of practical quantum applications. It’s the same process that generated value in traditional computing. The merger of the two companies expands the QCI portfolio to help accelerate the accessibility of quantum computing for today’s use cases, such as AI and optimization. It also allows quantum computing to operate at room temperature, which is often a challenge with this type of computing.
Classical vs quantum use case
When it comes to the finance use case, one way to understand how to move from classical computing to quantum computing is to think about how algorithms work.
For example, let’s take a traditional investor model. With a financial algorithm, you need to understand and review predefined user parameters, such as investment objectives, risk tolerances, and fund diversity. In this scenario, the investor wants to understand the user’s investment preferences and risk tolerances. These data are “setting— which means that variables are created and passed to the quantum computing model, which could use an artificial intelligence model employed by the quantum conformal Monte Carlo algorithm or other techniques to process the instructions of the computer. investor, analyze the stochastic data of the global asset universe and produce the corresponding output results of the investor survey.
Another emerging goal or concept of the investor model is to enable users to autonomously process and analyze stochastic data on financial assets. An interface – proprietary or not – could allow users to provide predefined input parameters representing their investment preferences and risk tolerance levels, and then produce independent personalized solutions for each user.
Depending on the type of user query or analysis request, some version of AI – such as autonomous dispersion analysis or autonomous diversification and allocation machine learning – could be deployed to process instructions and analyze stochastic asset data. This process would be very difficult to perform in typical computing environments.
Quantum: on the horizon
As Robert Sutor, IBM’s main quantum exponent, explained in a blog post from last July, “quantum computers will solve some problems that are totally unachievable for classical computers”. This indicates that organizations are planning to adopt quantum in their existing environments.
“[QCI is committed to be the] democratization that enables non-quantum experts to realize quantum value,” said Robert Liscouski, CEO of QCI. The recent acquisition of QPhoton accelerates this ease-of-use approach.
Here are some thoughts to consider:
- Quantum computing is the next logical step evolution of high performance computing (HPC) in terms of use cases.
- There are hardware approaches — IBM and Honeywell, for example — and software approaches — for example, Google, AWS — to quantum computing.
- Vendors worked with some of their specific centers of excellence and conducted extensive investigations from the CTO’s office.
- Key vendors leading this initiative include IBM, QCI, Xanadu, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and D-Wave Systems.
Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, quantum computing vendors such as HPE, Dell, and IBM are seeing exciting use cases and exploring them with partners and customers. If they can pair quantum computers with HPC systems, they believe quantum computers can speed up certain workloads. In this model, quantum computing can become an accelerator attached to a standard HPC system.
So who in enterprise IT is buying quantum solutions? According to quantum companies, data scientists in education, science labs and researchers are the primary users, while common buyers include airlines, financial institutions and universities. Conversations focus on the top five applications of the initial quantum, which include, but are not limited to, the following targeted industries: optimization, research, crypto, finance, materials science, and healthcare.
Make moves in the market
Microsoft is making progress with Azure Quantum without a huge hardware investment. These emulators are also supported by a consortium of companies. QCI, Honeywell, Toshiba, IonQ, and iCloud are vendors who discussed their approach, using Azure to achieve their goals.
Google Quantum AI is primarily simulator-based, but its progress has slowed since its initial launch in 2019. The Sycamore computer shows potential but is still in its infancy. Amazon Web Services has an R&D-focused Quantum Computing Center, testing and leveraging quantum processors to innovate and scale technology to support new large-scale initiatives.
Quantum defines its growth by three horizons:
- Horizon 1, also called now or in the short termincludes transactional use cases such as credit scoring, vehicle routing, chemical design, chemistry, and drug/protein structure prediction.
- Horizon 2, also called short termtracks oil processing and shipping, refining processes, drilling, farming, managing disruptions and supply chain issues, investment risk analysis, accelerating clinical trials , manufacturing and manufacturing optimization.
- Horizon 3, also called the futureincludes seismic imaging, consumer recommendation with financial analysis, disease risk prediction, and building structural design.
Why is all this important?
The promise of the quantum computer is long overdue – and the concept is now becoming a reality. The use of qubit scaling in real environments shows real potential.
According Investopedia, “Quantum computing is a field of computer science focused on the development of computing technology based on the principles of quantum theory (which explains the behavior of energy and materials at the atomic and subatomic levels).” When we look at computers today, they are designed to encode information in bits that use values of 1 or 0, thus limiting their ability to achieve that next level of processing. Quantum is a whole new way of computing that differs significantly from what we do on traditional classical systems today.
Many companies are trying to get ahead of this “wave” because quantum processing is incredibly fast. Solving today’s problems would be over in a fraction of the time. However, not all use cases work with quantum. Traditional systems now coexist with quantum systems and will continue to do so in the future.
ESG is a division of TechTarget.
