Without any of its own hardware and most of its software heavy-lifting dedicated to front-end development, security, and broader AWS systems integrati

Why AWS Might Own Quantum Computing in the Future

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2021-05-17 17:21:42

Without any of its own hardware and most of its software heavy-lifting dedicated to front-end development, security, and broader AWS systems integration, the cloud giant could own the quantum computing user base. The reasons are simple, even if the business could get complicated.

We often talk about future leadership in quantum computing by way of hardware innovation but if (or when) the technology suddenly takes off, the real differentiator will be accessibility and service. That might take an approach that is multi-platform with a defined pricing, support, and security model and while quantum startups can handle physics, building global front-end services is a different ballgame.

Amazon Web Services already knows how this story goes from its experiences building a multi-platform mega-platform for machine learning and expects the same lessons could carry forward for early quantum computing. The dual benefit for AWS with ML and now quantum is they can build a multi-tool foundation that is ready for an explosion of growth when it hits—one that is free from the vendor-specific negotiations of functionality, access, and pricing. And along the way, they get to evaluate every hardware and software vendor’s tooling, see inside each use case, and build their own profile of what the nascent quantum industry needs in advance.

There is a lot of learning but not much in the way of a viable business, according to the GM of AWS Braket service, Richard Moulds. Recall that Braket is AWS’s multi-layered quantum service, consisting of dedicated professional services teams to deep dive into specific applications, a research center oriented at Caltech, and Braket itself, which pulls together the hardware and software tools from a growing list of quantum computing vendors into a more cogent whole for easier access to and between quantum platforms and services.

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