What to Expect for a Datacentre or Cloud in Quantum Computing?

Is quantum computing the future of cloud computing and datacentres? Here we discuss its importance.

Quantum computing is a rapidly-emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers. Quantum computing remains outside of the traditional landscape when it comes to the datacentre. Quantum computing technology usually catches the eyes of developers and the cloud, but analysts predict it could still be years away from practical use. Quantum computing could allow those developers to push beyond increasingly complex performance limits.

Simulate and access quantum with cloud computing:

quantum computing systems are likely to be through cloud connections. This is because of the prohibitive cost of organizations having their quantum computing systems and having to rely on pooling access through a cloud connection.

The cloud plays two key roles in quantum computing. The first is to provide an application development and test environment for developers to simulate the use of quantum computers through standard computing resources. The second is to offer access to a few quantum computers in the way mainframe leasing was common a generation ago. This improves the financial viability of quantum computing since multiple users can increase machine utilization.

However, classical simulations of quantum algorithms that use large numbers of qubits are not practical. So, a classical simulation of a 50-qubit quantum computer would require a classical computer with roughly 1 petabyte of memory. This requirement will double with every additional qubit.

Organizations can use quantum computing to support last-mile optimization, encryption, and other computationally challenging issues. This technology could also aid teams across logistics, cybersecurity, predictive equipment maintenance, weather predictions, and more.

However, there are some drawbacks to quantum computing in the cloud. Developers should proceed cautiously when experimenting with applications that involve sensitive data. Also, a machine may not be immediately available when a quantum developer wants to submit a job through quantum services on the public cloud.

Making quantum computing in datacentre a reality:

We are ten years away from quantum computing in the datacentre. this is a very complex technology that will need time to mature. The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.

Quantum computers at scale in datacentre infrastructures will reshape the datacentre architecture from both a networking and security perspective. New concepts like data teleportation and entanglement will open to massive scalable and energy-efficient networks while simultaneously keeping data secure at each physical layer through quantum encryption.

These architectures will revolutionize the datacentre not only for computational capacity but also to enable use cases that are not possible in the classic realm, making massive computational, storage, and information exchange capabilities a reality.

Making a plan for enterprise and identifying the key areas where quantum computing can come into play will help structure future products and new quantum-enabled infrastructure plans. Setup a dedicated team that regularly researches and designs ideas to help bring the technology to commercial use cases.

Lastly, companies will need to take into consideration access and integration into strategic resources via cloud-enabled connection to a quantum-enabled datacentre. While we may be a decade away from quantum computing, planning and preparing for the datacentre of the future will be paramount to fully realizing the benefits of this technology. It's critical to prepare now to be ready for when these technologies become commercially available at scale.