Quantum computing is no longer just science fiction. Steve Cassidy asks whether it’s time for businesses to make the leap

We’re hearing more and more about quantum computing, and you might wonder what value it could have for your business. The answer is far from clear, because good, practical information about this new frontier is hard to come by.

I have to admit that I enjoy a nice information gap. Computing in general is stuffed full of such things, especially when new, specialist technologies collide with a less cautious and more gungho marketplace.

The general understanding of quantum computing (QC) doesn’t go much further than the social media-driven perception that it represents the end of conventional computational barriers, and that leaps in performance are just around the corner for everything from tablets to data centers.

Of course, the more ambitious the perception, generally the less likely it is to represent the truth, and what we might call “quantum superstition” is no exception.

The potential of quantum

While the nascent technology might not transform every computing task, I’ve had a number of conversations in the past year that suggest it’s time for businesses to start thinking about potential real-world quantum applications. That primarily means processes that involve performing analysis or computation on large data sets.

George Gesek, CTO at quantum specialist QMWare, gives the example of vehicle testing: when large manufacturers put their designs through the full range of product-testing procedures, they get back over 260 distinct statistics, settings, results, and predictions per vehicle. Some of those 260 data items might be single-number results, while others might be n-dimensional plots of fueling maps versus programmed power output management. Finding correlations and combinations of these values via conventional computing is intensive, repetitive, and slow; a quantum-based approach could do the same work in the blink of an eye.