NexGen Tech - Quantum Computing

The quantum technology is one of the fascinating emerging technology where the performance could be exponentially better than was capable today from a classic computers.

How industry defines the quantum computing?

Quantum computers, broadly, are computers that use “qubits,” or quantum bits, instead of regular bits, to do their calculations. Quantum computing uses a property called "quantum superposition" to allow its "qubits" to have greater complexity than the 0 or 1 state permitted to the bits that make up conventional computers. 

In the last 2 years, total funding to quantum computing startups reached over US$ 300 million. It was predicted that the market size of quantum computers in the future will be about the size of today’s supercomputer market around US$50 billion. The adoption of quantum computing is high in North America as compared with the rest of the world.

The full impact of quantum computing is probably more than a decade away. The research underway at multiple major tech companies and startups among them

Quantum computing market is segmented on the basis of application like Machine Learning and AI, Optimization, Simulation, Cyber Security and Recognition

Current State & Market Trend

The CIO and technology leaders are already active at all levels of engagement. A few companies have shown a significant interest in the Quantum computing. In Banking and Finance, companies like Barclays, J.P. Morgan and other are testing the power of quantum computing with the help of leading industry partners like IBM and Google.

Recently, Atos and Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) announced a collaboration to deploy an Atos Quantum Learning Machine (AQLM). The AQLM as a complete appliance currently able to simulate 30-to-40 qubits

The industry witnesses, the number of partnerships of various types take shape. The level of engagement clearly depends on each company’s strategy, and its specific business value potential, financial means, and risk appetite.

Use cases by key Industry

The most common categories of use are for simulation, optimization, machine learning, and AI. Not surprisingly, there are plenty of potential applications.

Issues and challenges

Requires extremely cold temperatures to operate

• Currently, the quantum computer required extremely cold temperatures to operate smoothly.
• The quantum computer operates at 15 millikelvin -15 thousandths of a kelvin degree.
• The normal room temperature is 293 kelvin, ice melts at 273.15 kelvin and water boils at 373.15 kelvin.

Limited number of Qubits

• Number of qubits are also a big challenge for the researchers. At present, it is limited in general purpose quantum computing processors.
• In theory, 300 qubits could represent more data than atoms in the universe.
• IBM's quantum computer currently supports 20 qubits whereas google claimed 72 qubits and by End of 2019 Rigetti quantum computer will support 128 qubits.

Venture capital investment

D-Wave is the most funded private quantum computing company with $205M raised to date, followed by Rigetti Computing.

Among the top deals in 2017 and 2018, Rigetti Computing raised a US$ 50 Million. In 2017, total funding to quantum computing startups reached an all-time high at over US$ 200 million and in 2018 it was over US$ 100 million. Notably, in the last 2 years, four startups raised over $20M, named as, 1QBit, D-Wave, IonQ and Rigetti

Future Expectations

The quantum computing market will stay small compared to current computers, but within the next 25-30 years, their capabilities will render all public security and cryptography insecure.

At the CES 2019 event, IBM has unveiled the Quantum Computing System for Commercial Use. With this announcement, by 2020 quantum computing will start generating actual revenue at a lower scale. Expansion into markets such as biology, healthcare, finance, AI and materials science will drive growth. After IBM, soon other start-ups and big players will offer access to cloud-based quantum processors

Gartner predicts that by 2023, 20% of organizations will be budgeting for quantum computing technology compared to less than 1% today. An academic research partnership and increasing efforts by government and private companies for the development of the technology can create growth opportunities for the market in the coming years.

Next Step for Consulting Firms

For the next 12 to 18 months, Consulting firms should focus on 4 core areas

Strategy: Strategy is like bread & butter for any consulting firm. For Consulting firms it’s necessary to understand the client’s strategy and challenges. Consulting firms can help them to build the real picture of the future.

Business Use Cases: Consulting firms has a team of highly motivated and smart personal learning consultants that can identify the quantum computing use cases for clients.

Acquiring Talent: Consulting firms can help companies to build and improve their approach to attract top talent. If in case it falls short, Consulting firms can also support in the development of new capabilities.

Training: Quantum computing is completely new to this industry where talent is scarce. Consultants need to ensure that client teams are capable about the technologies they will be working on. 

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