Companies, institutions, and individuals will need to work together to find ways to securely and efficiently manage quantum computing resources while maintaining quality and ensuring scalability. We believe private quantum hubs (PQHs) are an effective way to address this need, provided they are supported by a specialized organization that applies an effective governance system.

PQHs allow complex organizations with multiple users, customers, suppliers, and projects to experiment with various quantum technologies in private environments. A PQH lets organizations access services and quantum computing either in the cloud, through their own quantum computing centers, or in a hybrid format.

The success of large quantum computing projects largely depends on efficiently managing and unifying resources. Current examples include AWS and Microsoft, which developed PQHs (Braket and Azure Quantum, respectively) that offer quality, unified access to quantum platforms from a variety of manufacturers. For similar reasons, but on a different scale, companies and institutions that create PQHs also need tools and methods to manage projects.

Quantum Governance Systems

Centralized governance of a PQH is a complex undertaking. First, the governance system must encompass and control a broad framework of disparate activities and tools. Second, it must function as part of a system that includes:

• Integration of multiple quantum devices and technologies and their limitations, security definitions, and costs

• Platforms and tools for on-premise quantum and hybrid software development

• Tools for deploying and managing quantum computing as a service

• The ability to adapt to multiple deployment contexts and platform usage over the PQH’s lifetime

We don’t have the space to go into each of these elements in depth in this article, but we note that the viability of complex PQHs depends on having a tailor-made management strategy (see Figure 1), with the following elements as a minimum:

• Service model. This must be designed for large institutions and companies with complex organizational structures to ensure quantum data and assets are isolated, protected, processed, packaged, and transmitted as efficiently as possible in a secure, non-shared, private environment.

• Management model. This facilitates centralized management of remote access to the hub’s various quantum platforms, enabling traceability of all PQH activities.

• Dedicated governance software. This must meet the needs of everyone in the PQH, including hub administrators, business users, and researchers.

Currently, there are only a few platforms for quantum software development that include defined, specialized systems for managing private quantum nodes.

The cloud services platforms of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft Azure include functionality for managing general situations, but they were not designed as specialized services for quantum software hubs, making it difficult to take control of each one, even for a short time.

There are several third-party quantum software development platforms, but they were designed as end-user development tools, so they don’t include the basic elements needed for lifecycle management, hybrid system architecture, or quantum software ecosystems.

We believe the solution is a centralized system that specializes in governing complex quantum ecosystems with multiple actors (technology providers, customers, customers’ users, development teams with multiple roles, business users, researchers, and individuals).

[For more from the authors on this topic, see: “Quantum Software Ecosystem Governance.”]