Interview: Jan Goetz, CEO & Founder, IQM
What are you most looking forward to at the Quantum.Tech conference?
Networking: As the quantum ecosystem grows, we as a company want to be closely linked to quantum related studies and events, meet investors, collaborators, customers and new talent in the field.
What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the adoption of Quantum technology in 2020?
High barrier of entry throughout the value chain. Finding talent within this field is becoming harder and harder. This is an emerging technology with tangible breakthroughs in certain fields, however in a business environment, the real-world applications are still hard to come by in 2020.
Looking ahead a year from now, how do you see the adoption of Quantum computing progressing?
Practical benefits in business leading to accelerated investments in the field, both in financing quantum related companies, as well as companies investing in this capability with the help of quantum computing companies such as IQM. Looking further, software partnering, emerging ecosystems, and establishing a quantum software capability, might be the upcoming themes for the next years to come. The value and the opportunities of quantum computing for its end users will increase rapidly as quantum techniques and their commercial viability matures in the next few years.
What is going to be the biggest area of focus for your organisation within Quantum over the next 12 months?
IQM is in a business of building quantum computers. In fact, we are the largest European quantum computer manufacturer using superconducting materials for building quantum computers. Our technology is ready for the first deliveries. Thus, over the next 12 months we will focus our market research and marketing communication efforts towards identifying customers for our quantum computing hardware. IQM has already yielded breakthroughs in thermal management and other critical areas that influence computational speed and information accuracy, and this is something we are eager to communicate to our potential customers.
For Solution Providers: Can you share an example of how your platform or application has been used by a new customer? Feel free to include any feedback or practical examples.
As we are in the midst of structuring our sales and marketing team for our quantum computing hardware, it is too early to comment on the actual use cases and customer feedback. However, as most of the quantum computers that are commercially available, are provided as a cloud service, it means that the physical machine is not located in the same place where the service is being used. IQM is offering quantum computers to be built on site, so the customer will own the actual hardware and have immediate access to it. This is something that most of our potential customers have wished for. Physically locating the use and the machine in the same premises, enables secure, fast and low latency data transfer.
Top tips: How can you best engage and support the business to adopt Quantum technologies?
Through applied research by identifying near-term use cases where quantum technologies affect your business. This works only by investing into new technologies that open undiscovered possibilities for your R&D, running your business, or sales channels.
Top tips: What is the best single piece of advice you can give to an enterprise looking to start their Quantum journey?
Identify possible use cases in their future business and evaluate the technology needs and timescales when quantum solutions become relevant.
What are the first steps an organisation can take to start making their data and networks “Quantum safe”?
Developing a capability to understand quantum computing methods and appliances is becoming imperative for all private and public entities. The main reason is security, others are competition over exponential opportunities. Organizations are different in their complexity and in their dependencies throughout their operations, so understanding timescales when changes will be necessary and how long will it take for them to be implemented in respect to a specific organization, is key to a sustainable future.
If you look 3 years into the future, what do you consider will be the biggest impact Quantum technology will have on your industry?
As quantum computers must be accessible and provide added value to end users solving their own business problems, the interplay between quantum computing software and hardware for real world use will increase. The highest level of the quantum software stack will start providing valuable answers to business problems if mapped correctly to the existing hardware. This progression can be seen as developing special-purpose quantum processors, which will open new possibilities for software partnerships and eventually rising ecosystems. Successful quantum computing companies will not create value in silos and their customers will not only be in the end of a linear value chain. Instead, they will have shared platforms which are beneficially feeding each other both ways.Looking at 3 years into the future, quantum hardware/software co-developments will bring significant advantage over classical computing in certain fields of science and even in business applications.
What technology infrastructure building blocks are required to begin a Quantum computing or secure communications proof of concept?
Quantum processors that are seamlessly integrated into classical supercomputing architectures.
What is your biggest professional achievement to date?
Becoming the leading European hardware provider in just 8 months.
To view when Jan is speaking, visit: https://www.quantumtechcongress.co.uk/speakers/jan-goetz