Quantum Computing Digitally Disrupts The Future

Executives beware! There are a plethora of technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, automation and more that may very well shift the business which you work in today. These digital trends of 2019, are truly keeping executives of enterprise organizations on their toes with considering cost benefits and staying at pace with the fast growth of technologies.

With emerging technologies like quantum computing, it has been all the rage with promises of the extraordinary. The field of quantum computing has been around for decades, however it is predicted to get here quite fast. Quantum computing has the potential to deliver significant advantages, with speed as one of them. It can also develop to be even more sophisticated with AI integration. Many enterprise executives are optimistic that quantum computing will drive the next wave of digital evolution. CIOs must preempt and become experts on digital disruption.

The digital race has just begun. The time to prepare for the arrival of quantum computing is now. The era of quantum computing may just be around the corner. If you haven’t seen the disruption coming, it’s crucial to prepare for it right away but at the same time be cautious with all the hype that’s been happening. As we get one step closer to our quantum computing realities, we expect CEOs and CIOs to be surrounded by such hype from both media and vendors around quantum computing. Industries such as energy, healthcare, supply-chain, manufacturing, finance, defense and life sciences may witness this deluge.

It is no doubt, quantum computing is on the rise and it is important for leaders to pay attention. New and existing technology vendors will be competing to offer a slew of quantum computing services and products, where having an edge to problem solve a theoretical problem can be more outstanding that what a traditional computer offers. Other areas of focus include, having a quantum advantage to the fact that a quantum computer alone is able to solve a problem in the real world even better than a traditional computer. There are many vendors and startups which are focused on the short term value deliverable of having a hybrid quantum/classical solution for real world problems.

It has even gotten to the point where business leaders, specialists and researchers who work in the field of physics feel pressured to deliver justification that work has relevance to quantum computing. Quantum computing is forecasted to be one of the main potential disruptive technologies in the next five years or so, according to Gartner. According to the research firm, the parallel execution and exponential scalability of quantum computers means they excel with problems too complex for a traditional approach or where a traditional algorithms would take too long to find a solution.

Industries such as automotive, financial, insurance, pharmaceuticals, military and research have the most to gain from the advancements in quantum computing. “Learn while the technology is still in the emerging state,” said David Cearley, VP of Gartner.

Quantum computers are a beneficial problem solver. With quantum computing, CIOs and CEOs are driven by the fact that the potential for such acceleration in computing can effectively act as a real world problem solver. The existing computing challenges we have today still require even the fastest computers in the world months or years to get through its permutation, where the attempt is not even likely to do. Quantum computers have the ability to churn through mass amounts of calculations, all while at the same time address problems which are at a high level of complexity. The uniqueness of quantum computers is that they have the ability to introduce new kinds of automated algorithms. With traditional computing alone, data is simply stored in smaller denominations. Quantum bits are found in quantum computing. Whereas, such quantum bits can be either at zero or a combination of one or zero at the same time creating historical processing and storage which has never been achieved before to date.

With many types of quantum computers available, each type is capable of solving various kinds of problems. A common approach for example, is called gate-model quantum computing. I strongly feel that machine learning is one of the best applications if applied to specific problems only. Quantum computing has the ability to take applications next level.

In lieu of it all, quantum computing has a rich history. The idea initially began almost 40 years ago, in 1980. A mathematician from Russia named Yuri Manin, was first to put forth the concept. It wasn’t until 1982, the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Richard Feynman, proposed quantum computing while at the California Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, the previous 35 years, the concept was seen as technically impossible. Interestingly, it’s only been within the last few years that quantum computing is a promising reality. In our digital world, quantum computers not only are in existence, there are millions of various quantum computing programs which are successfully being executed in the cloud, and applications are making emergence.

Let’s face it, modern computers are reaching capacity with their processing power and quantum computing promises specialized problems which command robust computing. CEOs and CIOs alike, have pressing issues which come to mind for now and the future. Planning the ideal digital transformation which embraces technologies already existing and alongside, executives have to plan carefully ahead for the years to come with hyped emerging technologies. Quantum computers have the ability to run nearly 1,000 faster than existing and traditional computers. A next generation machine, will likely be able to run even faster as they evolve. There is much potential to solve problems in fields like healthcare to finance and more. For executives, it is significant to execute on this as digital disruption is one of the greatest challenges right now for enterprise executives. As a CIO, working with colleagues in and becoming a thought leader to make efforts to pre-empt such digital disruptions before disruptors and early indications are recognized is key. Quantum computing enables speed and can solve real world problems.