Quantum computing refers to the use of quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement to perform computation. Several entrepreneurs and companies are developing and switching to quantum computing to speed up and improve operations.
With the quantum race underway, investors all across the globe are pouring billions into quantum research and development. Satellite-based quantum key distribution for encryption has laid the groundwork for a quantum security-based global communication network. Companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft, have been investing heavily in developing large-scale quantum computing hardware and software.
With this global switch to quantum computing, business leaders must build strategies to plan for quantum security, identify usage of such computing and develop a responsible design to embrace the quantum future.
Nearly 18 months ago, the quantum computing trend started emerging in India. The 2019 CIO Innovation Index reported that top organization CIOs and IT leaders were already delving deep into quantum. The major reason being it accelerates processing by using a different kind of physics to speed and improve encryption, data manipulation, training models, etc. Plus, it will accelerate AI and machine learning, opening the doors for blockchain and aiding the ledger technology.
Quantum computers can solve complex optimization tasks and perform fast searches of unsorted data. This can be used for a multitude of tasks from sorting climate, health or financial data, to optimizing supply chain logistics, managing workforce, controlling traffic, etc. They can perform previously impossible tasks like quantum teleportation, where information encoded in quantum particles disappears in one location and is exactly recreated in another location far away. This could be a breakthrough in the quantum internet space. These computers can also simulate and analyze molecules for drug development and materials design as they would operate on the same laws of quantum physics as the molecules they simulate.
Given their varied range of applications, Quantum computing is gradually on the path to become a multi-billion-dollar industry expecting a sudden boom given the rate at which research is progressing. Though it has been talked about as an important forte for investment, the development always took place in pre-commercial areas, holding it back from expansion. However, with recent developments like Google’s quantum computer which performs calculations which would take hundreds of years for a classical supercomputer to perform, followed by IonQ and Honeywell developing quantum machines with record computing powers, a quantum boom seems inevitable.
The rapid growth experienced by the quantum tech sector in the past few years is enough to know that a quantum computing boom is bound to happen sooner or later. Business can rethink and plan their strategies accordingly.
