Equinix Collaboration Offers Quantum Computing as a Service

Digital infrastructure provider Equinix is offering quantum computing to customers as a service, lowering the access barrier for many organizations.

Equinix is combining with leading quantum computing provider Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) to offer the Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) model through the Equinix TY11 Tokyo International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Japan.

Oxford will install its hardware in the Japanese facility, and this will then leverage Equinix’s on-demand interconnection solution known as Equinix Fabric to distribute QCaaS to customers.

At research house, IDC, senior research director Andrew Buss predicted that by 2026, 95% of companies will invest in compute technologies that deliver faster insights from complex data sets “to drive differentiated business outcomes.”

“For data-driven businesses, the ability to differentiate and remain competitive comes down to delivering meaningful insights on ever more complex scenarios and tighter timespans,” said Buss.

“Making quantum computing available ‘as a Service’ on a globally interconnected digital infrastructure should significantly reduce barriers to experimentation and adoption such as cost, skills and the complexity of integration, and open up quantum computing to more organizations to test and use.”

At Equinix, the global head of digital interconnection, Arun Dev, said the initiative highlighted the benefits of Equinix Fabric for customers and collaborators such as Oxford as they looked to expand their connectivity opportunities.

“We are proud to enable easier, secure high bandwidth access to this pioneering technology to thousands of businesses around the world,” said Dev.

“Welcoming Oxford’s quantum computer to our global interconnection system on Platform Equinix underpins our commitment to supporting innovation.”

QCaaS is expected to become the most common model for how organizations access the technology, given the largely prohibitive expense of ownership.

Research house GlobalData estimated that the global quantum computing market size was between USD500 million to USD1 billion in 2022.

The analyst predicts the market will reach USD10 billion between 2026 and 2030 and have a compound annual growth rate of between 30% and 50% during the period.

Venture capital funding of quantum computing start-ups has risen steadily since 2018 and reached USD1.62bn in 2022, according to GlobalData.

Image credit: iStockphoto/metamorworks