The concept of using quantum mechanics to drive computing engines is not a new one, but recent advances in the field have shown that quantum computers may be inherently more secure than modern servers. This security could transform the discussion about cloud computing, as businesses would no longer have to worry about a third party handling their data.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computers are simply devices that take advantage of quantum mechanics to perform operations on sets of data. In a standard computer, the processor uses binary bits of information, which can either represent one or zero, to reach the result. In a quantum computer, the processor uses qubits, which can be one, zero, or a superposition of these two states. This seems counterintuitive when looked at through the lens of the visible world, but scientists have proven the basics of quantum mechanics at an atomic level.

The quantum computer works because at an atomic level multiple states can coexist until a measurement is performed, at which point all options collapse except for the measured output. By using this type of computing with data that is hundreds of qubits in size, the resulting processor can perform exponentially faster computations than a standard computer, somewhere in the range of millions of computations at once. This type of computational power is exactly what the ever-expanding cloud needs to handle the workload of tomorrow.

Blind Quantum Computing

While the added computation is always helpful, quantum computing's largest impact may center around security. As detailed in this Tech News World article, a user can prepare qubits in a state that only the host machine knows, then send a set of instructions to the computer in the cloud. The cloud computer will not know the original state of the qubits, so while it can determine an accurate set of ones and zeros as output, it has no way to interpret the values.

As noted in this BBC article, the process of blind quantum computing has been shown to work by Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna. Of course, quantum computers are still in their infancy, still only working on a few qubits at a time, but the rate of advancement has been increasing of late, and a working quantum supercomputer could appear before the decade is out.

Cloud Computing Issues

When quantum computers do become a market reality, cloud computing will have already grown exponentially, but the same issues that prevent companies from adopting cloud solutions today should still be present. No matter how secure the cloud provider claims to be, there is always a risk when you hand your data over to other people for computation. As cloud computing grows into the mainstream, the knowledge gap has given way to security concerns as the main reason businesses haven't adopted cloud computing.

Some businesses simply don't want to put their information at risk, while others may be legally or contractually prevented from doing so. While the promise of quantum computing is still years away, it at least gives corporations hope that one day everybody will be able to process data in the cloud without the fear of their data being stolen or hacked.