2014 International Conference on Reliability, Optimization and Information Technology ICROIT 2014, India, Feb 6-8 2014

The Quantum Way Of Cloud Computing

Harpreet Singh, Abha Sachdev
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Amity School of Engineering & Technology
Noida, India
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract-Quantum Computing and Cloud Computing are the

amazing technology would be accessed by the common people?

technologies which have the capability to shape the future of

Or will their use be limited to just a few companies like today's

computing. Quantum computing focuses on creating super-fast

supercomputers. The best possible answer to this question is to

computers using the concepts of quantum physics whereas Cloud

incorporate this technology into a yet another remarkable field

computing allows the computing power to be provided as a service.

of computing i.e. Cloud Computing. The basic idea of cloud

This paper presents a theoretical approach towards the possibility

computing is to migrate the processing power from customer's

of a Quantum-Cloud i.e. quantum computing as a service. This will

computer to remote internet servers. In the case of Quantum

combine the fields of quantum computing and cloud computing,

resulting

into

an evolutionary

technology. Also,

Cloud, this processing power would be the quantum computer.

this paper

discusses the possible advantages of this in the near future.

This dual technology can provide quantum computing as a

Keywords- Quantum Computing, Cloud Computing, Qubit,

service to the customers. Therefore, everyone would be able to

Quantum Cloud

access the power of quantum computing without actually

having it.

I. INTRODUCTION

Before going deep into this dual Technology, we will first

Have you ever wondered that Quantum physics, which once

discuss about cloud computing, the security issue in cloud

considered as one of the weirdest part of physics, could become

computing, how the quantum computing-cloud computing duo

a cutting edge of computing technology? This is evident from

will help in overcoming this issue and various other advantages

the fact that a new revolution in computing is possible which

which would be offered by the Quantum-Cloud technology.

would exploit the peculiarities of quantum phenomena to

provide cloud computing. This revolution may be termed as the

ILQUBIT

Quantum-Cloud.

Qubit (or quantum bit) is the fundamental unit of quantum

Quantum Computing is a new field of computing which has

information. In comparison to classical computers which work

the capability to revolutionize the field of computing. The basic

by manipulating binary digits or bits, a quantum computer

idea of Quantum Computing is to create computers which

works by manipulation of qubits. A bit can take one of the values

would be million times more powerful than today's super

o or 1. A qubit on the other hand can be 1, 0 or superposition of

computers. As we go deep into the functioning of quantum

both 1 and O. This superposition of states occurs due to the

computers, we would be surrounded by more and more laws of

ambiguity inherent in quantum mechanics [3].

quantum physics, the implementation of which would seem

more of a fiction than reality. It has been therefore rightly said by

The qubit can be visualized as a unit vector pointing from the

the famous physicist Niels Bohr that "anyone who is not

origin to a point on the surface of bounding sphere [4]. The

shocked by the quantum theory, has not actually understood it"

North Pole and South Pole are equivalent to 1 and 0 respectively.

[1] [2].

Rest of the locations is a quantum superposition of 1 and O.

Figure 1 df"nirt<; llllhit IInnf"r <;lInf"rn()<;iti()n ()f<;ttf"<;

But, with astonishing research being carried out in this field,

these laws have become as simple as ordinary guidelines. This is
the power of technology which does not let us settle for anything
less than the desired.
With incredible research going in this field, a Canadian
company D-Wave was the first one to develop a functional

quantum computer. Moreover, the company sold its quantum

computer named as D-Wave One to United States defense
contractor Lockheed Martin for lO million dollars, marking the
start of the revolutionary next generation computers. Though
the development of this technology is in its early stage, but it

will surely be practical in a few years of time.

As stated above, the quantum computers would be quite

Figure l. TheQubit

expensive in nature and would not be possible to be available to

each and every one. So, the question arises that how this

978-1-4799-2995-5/14/$31.002014 IEEE

A quantum computer having more than one qubit exploits a

397

concept of quantum mechanics called Quantum Entanglement.

role due to its inherent characteristics.

Albert Einstein had described entanglement as "spooky action

occuring at a distance". It allows the state of a qubit to be linked

IV. THE CASE OFQUANTUM INTEGRATED CLOUD

to the state of some other, such that, setting the value of one qubit
(with a 1 or a O) will set the same value in the other.

The quantum cloud duo will be a technology of its own kind.

It would add yet another functionality of "quantum computing

Every time a qubit is added to the quantum computer, its

as a service" to the field of cloud computing. It would offer so

computational power doubles. If a quantum computer is having

much technological advancement in the field of computing that

1000 qubits, it could test 21000 combination of input at once. This

today's computers will look like a thing of the past. This

is the incredible power of quantum computers which would

technological duo would provide many advantages in the near

shape the destiny of future technologies [5].

future. It would possess the key advantages of next generation of

powerful quantum computing as well as the significant

IILCLOUD COMPUTING

properties of cloud computing such as cost reduction, resource

pooling, cloud storage cloud processing, easier maintenance,

Cloud Computing is a field of computing wherein the

improved

accessibility,

flexibility

and

mobility.

This

computing power is provided as a utility [6]. This paves way for

technology would bring about unimaginable change in the

a shift in computing i.e. rather than computing being a product

technology around us which would be accessible through

that is purchased; it would be delivered to the consumers over

numerous touch points.

the internet from far off large scale data centers. The important
point is that the customers will avail all these features without

The most important advantage would be the eradication of

actually knowing how the cloud works. These data centers in

security issue from cloud computing. This security would arise

which the data is actually stored and processed can be termed as

from the application of an inherent feature quantum computing

the "clouds". This is how cloud computing gets its name [7]. The

called as Quantum Cryptography. Quantum Cryptography is a

of

technology which aims at providing information security by

computation, application hosting and data storage to be reduced

implementation

of

this

technology

allows

the

cost

applying the phenomena of quantum physics. The security of

significantly.

information is based on the inviolability of the laws of quantum

mechanics.

There are three service models in cloud computing. These

are Software as a Service (Saas), Platform as a Service (paas)

Quantum computers would protect the data stored in the

and Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas).

cloud using very strong encryption techniques which will take a

hacker's computer millions of years to break [10]. This would

In SaaS type of cloud computing, web applications are

help in building trust among the consumers towards the cloud

delivered through the browser to thousands of customers. In

technology.

PaaS type of cloud computing, the development environment is

delivered as a service. In IaaS type of cloud computing, the

Also, the quantum cloud duo would provide enormous

infrastructure such as storage is provided as a service to the

processing power in the hands of the consumers. This means that

customers through the internet.

consumers will access the super-fast technology of quantum

computing from anywhere using the internet. Such a technology

Also, cloud computing contains four deployment models.

would pave way for next generation of computing which would

These include public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and

make computing more portable and may lead to a tremendous

community cloud. In a public cloud, the cloud service is

growth in the field of smart phones. This is due to the fact that the

provided to the public . In a private cloud, the cloud service is

application support infrastructure would be

made available to a particular organization or a certain group of

people. It cannot be used by the general public. The hybrid cloud
combines multiple clouds (public, private or community). Here,
the individual clouds retain their uniqueness, but are bounded
together as a unit. In a community cloud, the cloud service is
organized to serve a common function of one or more
organizations [8]. With such applications of cloud computing, it
can also be described as "sky computing", having numerous
isolated clouds.
As the field of cloud computing grows even more, it faces a

End Users

serious problem arising due to the very core of its success. This
is the issue of security. Until this issue is completely eradicated,
cloud computing would not be fully secure [9]. But, the question

Figure 1.Quantum Integrated Cloud Technology

is how to secure the cloud using the current techniques in order

to generate the trust of the organizations and the people towards

hosted on a highly advanced and shared cloud platform in

the technology of cloud computing. The answer to this question

accordance with the today's trend, but with more speed than ever

lies in yet another field of computing which is about to make its

before, paving way for high quality applications. It would also

journey from laboratories to practicality. This is the next

result in thinner and more powerful mobile devices.

generation technology of quantum computing. To remove the

Moreover, the aspect of quantum computing in cloud computing

security problem, quantum computing may play an important

will provide a base for super-fast database operations in the

398

cloud. This feature of quantum technology was presented by

quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers. This problem

Lov Grover. In 1996, Lov Grover devised a quantum algorithm

to search an analogous quantum database having N terms in O(..J

can be solved by implementation of quantum security which

prevents any quantum system to access quantum information

N) steps. In classical computation, this would require N/2 steps

without it being disturbed. However, appropriate steps would be

to find the required entry. It means that, for a database of 10,000

names, Grover's algorithm would require the use of..J 10,000

required to be carried out for it to be implemented in the

quantum-cloud computing technology.

100 steps, rather than 5000. The algorithm operates by first

creating a superposition of all the 10,000 entries where each

However, quantum computing is at the initial stage of

entry has the same possibility of appearing in response to the

development. Most of the quantum computing technology is

measurement made on the system. By using Grover's algorithm,

limited to the research centers wherein scientists are applying

a quantum computer could reduce the search time from

their

thousands of years to minutes [11] [12]. So, it would be

revolutionary quantum computers. Though the intermixing of

knowledge

of

quantum

physics

into

developing

extremely useful for providing fast database operations in the

the quantum and cloud technologies may take time, but these

cloud storage. This would serve as a yet another advantage for

two will surely work together in the quantum-cloud set up to

this dual technology.

form a powerful technology and put forward enormous

advanced applications of the computing technology which
today seem to be as fiction.

Moreover, such an extraordinary technology shall enable the

organizations, whether large scale or small scale, to accept and

VII CONCLUSION

implement the cloud technology. It would pave a way for wave

of worldwide trust towards cloud computing and thus explore
the world of computing in a new way. So, it cannot be neglected

Through this paper, a new approach to cloud computing

that the future of computing lies in the cloud and quantum

integrated with quantum computing has been proposed. This

computing. However, the integration of these technologies with

approach provides basis for yet another functionality of

each other will pave way for yet another revolutionary

"quantum computing as a service" to the field of cloud

technology which would change the course of computing

computing. The prosed technological duo would provide many

towards a new direction.

advantages in the near future. The most important advantage

V AN EXAMPLE OF QUANTUM-CLOUD PARTNERSHIP

computing. Also, it would provide enormous processing power

would

be the

eradication

of

security

issue

from

cloud

in the hands of the people. Moreover, such a technology would

A similar approach as visioned through quantum-cloud

pave way for next generation of computing which would make

partnership would be demonstrated by a group of eminent

computing more portable and may lead to a tremendous growth

scientists of Bristol University, United Kingdom. On 27

in the field of smart phones.

September 2013, the university would attach their quantum

computer to the web to allow anyone to access and experiment

The pioneering work being carried out today is paving its

the power of a quantum computing. This initiative has been

way towards the era of Quantum-Cloud. In the near future, we

named as Qcloud. The Qcloud quantum computer has been

may be using incredible technology which would tremendously

housed at the Centre for Quantum Photonics in the Bristol

affect our way of living. We can expect marvelous gadgets

The idea is to demonstrate a practical aspect of

which could have never been thought of. Moreover, there would

quantum computing as a service, and let people understand the

many new ways by which we will interact with technology and

University.

meaning of quantum computing. This quantum processor would

all these will be based on the concepts which today we term as

be remotely accessed and controlled by anyone in the world. It

fiction.

would allow people to run an experiment, and test the real

experimental data against their simulations. However, due to

So, in the near future, this dual technology of quantum and

lack of quantum technology, the quantum computer used is of

cloud computing would be required to deliver its technological

just two quantum bits or qubits [13] [14]. So, it would not be able

peculiarities and shape the field of future computing. The initial

to deliver all the peculiarities of quantum computing. But, this

step has been taken and the goal has been set. Only the middle

initiative would surely pave way for the proposed quantum way

steps need to covered and these steps will result in the change we

of cloud computing.

want

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This shows a practical example of application of the

quantum computing-cloud computing duo in recent time.

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Ms.

However, such an application can be expanded to a much greater

Abha Thakral Sachdev, Assistant Professor, Amity School of

level resulting in the proposed quantum cloud functionality.

Engineering and Technology, Amity University for her support

VI. FUTURE

and guidance.
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