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Quantum computing,AI, DAOs and the metaverse make for an interestingcloud race after COVID-19

Two years ago, when I last wrote about the state of the cloud race for ERP Today, the landscape was characterised by the amount of capital that enterprises needed to save, which led to more workloads being driven to the cloud. Converting CAPEX into OPEX has proved to be a winning strategy for enterprises, enabling them to drive enterprise acceleration.

But since then, we have seen the era of infinite computing begin, meaning enterprises now need to build next generation applications to stay in the game. Meanwhile the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, rising interest rates and fears of an upcoming recession havent increased the appetite of boards to put capital into data centres, not when the cloud offers a workable, viable and in almost all cases, a safe opportunity for enterprises to operate workloads in the 21st century.

Lets look at the state of play as reached in the last two years, and the next-gen disruptions that are acting as game changers in cloud.

COVID-19 boosted the cloud

Uncertainty is a strong impetus to review the status quo. As many an enterprise struggled to both redefine itself and operate successfully under pandemic circumstances, the ability to tie operating costs to business performance has proved to be both highly desirable and critical. Moreover, board members who took a more cavalier approach towards the IT conversation on moving to the cloud have become keen experts on CAPEX allocation in the last few years, and in many cases had their eureka moment when it came to IT costs.

The results have driven a harder push to move workloads to the cloud than ever before. Not only did COVID-19 boost (pun intended) the move to the cloud, but also the Great Re-Assessment of employees towards working life. When people work from home, switch jobs more often and redefine their work/life balance, it becomes even more of a challenge to fill IT operations jobs to run on-premise data centres. Here is what CxOs are doing or should be doing to move to the cloud in these changing times:

Talk to your apps vendor. It isnt only enterprises that have to move to the cloud, but also the application vendors as well. Obviously they will be keen to keep their customers, and will offer ways to move an enterprise to the cloud.

CxOs should evaluate these offerings and consider taking advantage of them if they see their enterprise working long-term with its current business application vendor.

Select SaaS vendors that use IaaS vendors. As I laid out in my article two years ago, it matters greatly when it comes to who is responsible for producing CAPEX. It should not be an enterprises future SaaS vendor, as they would be better off investing in their software rather than infrastructure.

CxOs therefore need to ask their SaaS vendor if they run on another IaaS vendor, because if they do not, then they cant offer commercial elasticity. Which is what the move to the cloud is all about: pay less when you use less, and only pay more for IT when you use more IT.

Start building in the cloud. Software is eating the world, and enterprises must create next generation applications to differentiate themselves and operate new digital business models.

Suffice to say that CxOs need to build these applications in the cloud, with modern tools and with cloud-inherent economic mechanics as this is the only way to avoid creating bigger CAPEX challenges and higher migration loads to the cloud in the long run.

The cloud is essential to fuel the move to AI as it enables infinite insights, the economical data storage of all things digital in the enterprise

The AI imperative forces the enterprise into the cloud

A lot has been said about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the enterprise. The long wait and anticipation phase is ending, and the benefits are becoming real so real that enterprises which dont take advantage of AI will struggle to remain relevant towards the end of this decade.

The cloud is essential to fuel the move to AI as it enables infinite insights, the unlimited, economical data storage of all things digital in the enterprise, while not knowing what the queries to the data will be, in short fuelled by Hadoop data-scalable technologies.

AI also fosters infinite compute, the ability to ramp up and ramp down computing infrastructure to fuel AI processes in the volume as enterprises need it.

Quantum computing is becoming increasingly relevant

The next generation of computing paradigm that will be relevant for the enterprise is quantum computing. The technology has matured fast from a pure speeds and feeds phase only two years ago, to the first commercial use cases being available since spring 2022.

Quantum computing will be the first computing platform that enterprises will not adopt on-premise (except for some government use cases, of course, and perhaps deep-pocketed banks and pharma enterprises) but from the cloud. CxOs who want their enterprise to be able to take advantage of quantum computing better move their enterprise to the cloud, starting with data.

Deep learning is deep loomingon the horizon

The ability of software to learn from data and then determine and even automate the right course of action is deep learning. Deep learning will be key for enterprises that compete to give their employees an attractive workplace with a compelling work/life balance, and the automation for that can only come from deep learning.

To be ready for deep learning, CxOs need to move workloads and data to the cloud so their enterprise can take advantage of deep learning capabilities and thrive in the marketplace with both its employees and customers.

DAOs are powered by the cloud

Decentral autonomous organisations (DAOs) operate in the cloud, as they need to minimise CAPEX and need both the architectural and commercial economics only the cloud offers. And while the decentralised approach seems alien to the traditional enterprise, innovative CxOs will make sure that their enterprise can take advantage of both the talent and capital currently flowing into DAOs.

As the decentralisation trend will only get stronger, it is even more relevant to have both an enterprises data and processes in the cloud so that it can take advantage of DAO dynamics powered on the blockchain.

The metaverse will transformall business

The metaverse merits a whole article by itself, and while we know very little about it, with it likely to be the last of these mega trends to materialise, we know one thing for sure already: the metaverse runs in the cloud, so to hedge and be ready whenever the metaverse fully lands, CxOs need to make sure their enterprise runs in the cloud.

Quantum computing has matured fast from a pure speeds and feeds phase, to the first commercial use cases being available since spring 2022

Handicapping the Big Three and a not-so-young newcomer

The rich got richer in the cloud these last few years. As such, Amazons AWS, Googles Google Cloud and Microsofts Azure businesses are bigger and more relevant than ever before. The newcomer to the game is Oracles Oracle Cloud, which has earned its spot at the table by building one of the most enterprise-friendly public clouds out there.

As you already know, when understanding technology vendors, it is always good to look at their organisational DNA alongside pure capabilities:

Amazon AWS leads and keeps leading. Nothing has changed at AWS: Amazon remains an e-retailer, and AWS is its IT platform. The cloud companys CEO Andy Jassy was so successful that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently handed him the keys to the whole of the business. And while Amazon struggles with overcapacity, AWS is doing just fine, partially benefitting from the extra capacity that makes for extra ammunition in the war for cloud leadership.

AWS has also spotted in the hearts of developers an aspect that CxOs cannot overlook as people continue to build software and their preferences remain crucial. More and more we see AWS using its overall expertise in supply chain management, logistics and warehousing automation to appeal to customers. Amazon has massive internal and organic load from its e-commerce business which gives its cloud a lot of internal scale.

Google Cloud and the vertical twist. In spring 2019, newly minted Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian started the vertical cloud promise, whereby enterprises will receive more value from a vertical cloud that knows and automates specific industry aspects. With that he took the initiative, and the rest of the industry was forced to react. This created a veritable additional differentiator for Google Cloud which relied a lot (perhaps too much) on scale and AI.

For AI, Google Cloud is maintaining its two to three year lead for algorithms on custom silicon over AWS and Azure. Google has the inherent advantage in that its cloud needs to scale to premier performance requirements to keep its internal use cases around advertisement, natural language processing, YouTube etc. going.

The result is a premier cloud infrastructure, which includes networking, and a setup where Google boasts its own cables. At the same time, Google needs to take market share from AWS and Azure and therefore is very competitively priced, to the point of Google Cloud continuously measuring losses for parent business Alphabet, as seen once more in the companys most recent quarterly earnings.

The Microsoft metamorphosis. After almost a decade, Microsoft has completed its transformation into a cloud vendor. Its CEO, Satya Nadella, came from the Azure business and led Microsoft into its cloud metamorphosis.

Across AWS and Google, Redmond understands the enterprise better than its competitors, and has decade-long ties into the IT organisation of practically any enterprise on the planet. More importantly, almost all enterprises have some sort of contractual agreement to boot with Microsoft, concerning at least Office and often also more of the Microsoft stack. Compared with its two key competitors, Microsoft has only little in-house organic load (e.g. advertising, Xbox etc.). With its focus on Office, Microsoft is also more advanced and active concerning data privacy and data residency, which comes part and parcel with the nature of the Office business containing sensitive data.

Good ol newbie, Oracle

Oracle has been a long time partner of enterprise IT, carrying the old guard label against competitors like AWS. And while it looked for a long time that the company would join the extensive list of former key IT partners that did not manage to move to the cloud, things have looked up for Oracle in the last five years, with particular focus on the last two.

Despite past and ongoing attempts to replace Oracles database, its competitors have made little to no inroads. In the meantime, Oracle has built out its second-generation cloud, which is the optimum platform to run the Oracle Database. To serve customers, Oracle and Microsoft recently even announced a DBaaS service of Oracle Database running in Azure. This is a good example of the more IT-centric cloud vendors realising that the customer comes first, regardless of past animosities or competition.

In contrast to the other three competitors, Oracle has no organic load for its cloud (its SaaS Apps being the notable exception), something it must make up with large deals (e.g. Zoom, TikTok etc.) while it waits for customers to move workloads to Oracle Cloud. Being a software company, Oracle Cloud is margin-dilutive for Oracle as its equivalents are for Google and Microsoft. Nonetheless, Oracle is investing massively, with its recent quarter showing the companys largest CAPEX expense to date.

The takeaways

CxOs should understand the core differences between these four cloud infrastructure vendors, all the way down to their organisational DNA, which remains immutable and cannot be changed by marketing and products.

All vendors bring distinctive value propositions to enterprises. AWS is and will be the preferred platform by developers for the near future, and, outside of the AI/ML space where they are catching up, has done very well for itself.

Microsoft works well with IT and most enterprises use the vendor already. Google will be ideal for enterprises who want to bet on the AI/ML strategy early. Oracle is a new player, which is definitely relevant for existing Oracle customers, but also for non-Oracle customers as it has the most enterprise-friendly cloud management.

It will be interesting to see how the companies handle disruption along the lines of quantum computing and the metaverse. Hopefully with their services, your enterprise will ride out the storm with aplomb.

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Premises and potentates for cloud in 2022 ERP Today - ERP Today

In 2013, Rigetti Computing began its push to make quantum computers. That effort could bear serious fruit starting in 2023, the company said Friday.

That's because next year, the Berkeley, California-based company plans to deliver both its fourth-generation machine, called Ankaa, and an expanded model called Lyra. The company hopes those machines will usher in "quantum advantage," when the radically different machines mature into devices that actually deliver results out of the reach of conventional computers, said Rigetti founder and Chief Executive Chad Rigetti.

Quantum computers rely on the weird physics of ultrasmall elements like atoms and photons to perform calculations that are impractical on the conventional computer processors that power smartphones, laptops and data centers. Advocates hope quantum computers will lead to more powerful vehicle batteries, new drugs, more efficient package delivery, more effective artificial intelligence and other breakthroughs.

So far, quantum computers are very expensive research projects. Rigetti is among a large group scrambling to be the first to quantum advantage, though. That includes tech giants like IBM, Google, Baidu and Intel and specialists like Quantinuum, IonQ, PsiQuantum, Pasqal and Silicon Quantum Computing.

"This is the new space race," Rigetti said in an exclusive interview ahead of the company's first investor day.

For the event, the company is revealing more details about its full technology array, including manufacturing, hardware, the applications its computers will run and the cloud services to reach customers. "We're building the full rocket," Rigetti said.

Although Rigetti isn't a household name, it holds weight in this world. In February, Rigetti raised $262 million and became one of a small number of publicly traded quantum computing companies. Although the company has been clear its quantum computing business is a long-term plan, investors have become more skeptical. Its stock price has dropped by about three quarters since going public, hurt most recently when Rigetti announced the delay of a $4 million US government contract that would have accounted for much of the company's annual revenue of about $12 million to $13 million.

The company argues it's got the right approach for the long run, though. It starts in early 2023 with Ankaa, a processor that includes 84 qubits, the fundamental data processing element in a quantum computer. Four of those ganged together are the foundation for Lyra, a 336-qubit machine. The names are astronomical: Ankaa is a star, and Lyra is a constellation.

Rigetti doesn't promise quantum advantage from the 336 qubit machine, but it's the company's hope. "We believe it's absolutely within the realm of possibility," Rigetti said.

Having more qubits is crucial to more sophisticated algorithms needed for quantum advantage. Rigetti hopes customers in the finance, automotive and government sectors will be eager to pay for that quantum computing horsepower. Auto companies could research new battery technologies and optimize their complex manufacturing operations, and financial services companies are always looking for better ways to spot trends and make trading decisions, Rigetti said.

Rigetti plans to link its Ankaa modules into larger machines: a 1,000-qubit computer in 2025 and a 4,000-qubit model in 2027.

Rigetti isn't the only company trying to build a rocket, though. IBM has a 127-qubit quantum computer today, with plans for a 433-qubit model in 2023 and more than 4,000 qubits in 2025. Although qubit count is only one measure of a quantum computer's utility, it's an important factor.

"What Rigetti is doing in terms of qubits pales in comparison to IBM," said Moor Insights & Strategy analsyt Paul Smith-Goodson.

Along with those machines, Rigetti expects developments in manufacturing, including a 5,000-square-foot expansion of the company's Fremont, California, chip fabrication facility now underway, improvements in the error correction technology necessary to perform more than the most fleeting quantum computing calculations, and better software and services so customers can actually use its machines.

Rigetti Computing's plans for improvements to its broad suite of quantum computing technology.

To reach its goals, Rigetti also announced four new deals at its investor event:

Qubits are easily perturbed, so coping with errors is critical to quantum computing progress. So is a better foundation less prone to errors. Quantum computer makers track that with a measurement called gate fidelity. Rigetti is at 95% to 97% fidelity today, but prototypes for its fourth-generation Ankaa-based systems have shown 99%, Rigetti said.

In the eyes of analyst Smith-Goodson, quantum computing will become useful eventually, but there's plenty of uncertainty about how and when we'll get there.

"Everybody is working toward a million qubit machine," he said. "We're not sure which technology is really going to be the one that is going to actually make it."

See the original post:
Quantum Computing's Impact Could Come Sooner Than You Think - CNET

From the White House to the boathouse, infrastructure has traditionally been narrowly defined as the roads, bridges, waterways, and other projects that allowed a post-industrial America to flourish.

Not anymore.

In the latest sign that the technology revolution is moving in new directions, a six-line law with no name is helping to redefine the traditional notions of infrastructure to include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and semiconductors.

The legislation, quietly signed by President Biden last month, amended a 2015 law widely known as a highway bill, as befitted its name: the Fixing Americas Surface Transportation (FAST) Act.

A provision of the law provides for expedited Federal environmental and permitting review for covered infrastructure construction projects. Currently, those projects include some of the largest, most complex, and novel infrastructure projects in the U.S., such as massive pipelines and multibillion-dollar renewable energy projects, according to a Federal steering council overseeing them.

Now, with the recent change in the law, the projects potentially qualifying for speeded-up review also encompass semiconductors, artificial intelligence and machine learning, high-performance computing and advanced computer hardware and software, quantum information science and technology, data storage and data management, (and) cybersecurity.

The amended law, titled only An Act, added those computer-related projects.

The legislations sponsor, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., says his intention is to boost national security, especially by fast-tracking permitting reviews of semiconductor plants expected to be built because of the Chips and Science Act. That law, also signed by Biden last month, provided funding incentives to establish such plants.

I came to Washington to create jobs for the American people and bolster our national security to beattheChinese Communist Partyin the competition that will define the century, Hagerty said after Biden signed the FAST Act law on Aug. 16. His office called the FAST Act legislation a watershed bill that enacts regulatory reform that benefits private-sector companies building products that are essential to American national and economic security.

A technology industry expert familiar with the legislation downplayed its effects, saying that Hagertys bill does not represent a collective movement to recast what critical infrastructure looks like. I think that smartly, what youre starting to see is more the ability to leverage technology as components of broader infrastructure projects. It doesnt make the components themselves infrastructure.

But the official summary of the bill by the respected Congressional Research Service calls AI, semiconductors and the other new technology projects now covered by the FAST Act infrastructure projects.

And infrastructure experts say that redefinition has the potential to fast-track a variety of tech projects beyond the scope of what has long been considered critical infrastructure.

Anthony Lamanna, a professor at the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University, says infrastructure has traditionally been viewed as the built environment for civilization your water, your sewage, your electric.

When he first read the FAST Act revision, Lamanna says, I have a background in concrete and construction, so my gut was that the tech stuff doesnt really fit.

On further reflection, he says, Maybe we start looking at this as the chip manufacturers are part of this future cyber infrastructure I think somebody coming up with this stuff seems to be thinking far into the future. By fast-tracking these projects, were saying this is important to civilization in the future.

Adie Tomer, a senior fellow and infrastructure expert at the Brookings Institution, likened the language in Hagertys bill to last years high-profile Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which he says makes it explicit that the way infrastructure is construed is that broadband and digital technology is considered infrastructure.

Clearly, we are modernizing our definition of physical infrastructure to include digital tech, says Tomer, who supports the change but says it also bears further scrutiny because data storage facilities and other projects potentially covered by Hagertys bill are privately owned.

What should be the Federal relationship with the private owners of those kinds of facilities? Tomer asked. I dont think its necessarily clear yet Its a critical area to watch.

On the day Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last year, a White House blog post hailing the legislation focused almost exclusively on projects such as roads, bridges, and rail, along with broadband.

But a MeriTalk review of the legislation shows that the word digital appears 144 times, including a Federal requirement to adopt digital management systems on construction sites using state-of-the-art automated and connected machinery and optimized routing software.

The bill also requires the administration to report to Congress on using digital tools and platforms as climate solutions, including AI and blockchain technologies.

The move towards redefining infrastructure for the tech age echoes recent developments in Europe, where the European Union adopted tougher cybersecurity rules for network and information systems. The European Commission, which proposed the measures, defined them as critical infrastructure protection that would make Europe fit for the digital age.

In Washington, the FAST Act legislation was introduced in the Senate by Hagerty and several co-sponsors on Jan. 10 and passed the same day by unanimous consent. After a brief floor debate, it cleared the House in July by a vote of 303-89.

During the debate, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., called the legislation a commonsense bill that will build on the progress we are already making today with the CHIPS and Science Act.

The bill here simply adds key national security-related technologies, like semiconductors, to the types of projects that are eligible for an existing Federal program that improves the coordination between Federal departments on permitting, Costa added.

That environmental review and permitting process, Hagerty has said, should be much speedier for the tech projects now covered by his bill, dramatically (reducing) the time required to stand up new manufacturing capacity in strategically critical sectors, such as semiconductor fabrication.

The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council oversees that expedited permitting process. When it added another industry to the eligible projects last year, it chose one decidedly more traditional than high tech: mining.

Mining is an important infrastructure sector, the body wrote.

Continued here:
Are AI and Quantum Computing Infrastructure? The Feds Say Yes - MeriTalk

Moritz Schlick Postdoc position in the field of Quantum Computing for excited state chemistry and chemical dynamics

The Moritz Schlick early-career programme (MSECP) at the University of Vienna supports early stage postdocs with high potential for an academic career. Participants in the programme receive outstanding financial support as well as training and mentoring to allow them to develop their full potential. Moritz Schlick early-career Postdoc Programm (univie.ac.at)

1. General Description (research group)

The Gonzlez research groups focus (https://theochem.univie.ac.at/) is driven by understanding chemical phenomena using contemporary computational and theoretical methods. In particular, we employ ab initio quantum chemistry to understand relationships between structure and function but we also develop chemical dynamics methods to model and predict chemical and photochemical process of complex systems and to control chemical reactions using light. Prof. Gonzlez's current research focus is put at using highly accurate electronic structure methods, developing molecular reaction dynamical methods and interfacing both fields to achieve basic understanding of chemical processes and structure-function relationships as well as obtain quantitative predictions in molecules, biological systems and materials.

2. Job Description for the Moritz Schlick position

A Postdoc position is available for an early stage researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria, in the field of quantum computing for excited state chemistry and chemical dynamics.

Quantum Chemistry is one of the leading applications for quantum computers. Simple model systems have already been made available on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. With the number of qubits growing larger, advanced algorithms of quantum chemistry can be applied to quantum computers.

Future quantum computers will be coupled to classical high-performance computer (HPC) systems and work as accelerators, where the algorithms showing unfavorable scaling on these classical systems will get offloaded onto the quantum devices. Coupling the quantum algorithms with computer codes executed on standard HPC systems is therefore extremely important.

Within this position, the candidate will explore and adapt currently available algorithms for quantum chemistry on quantum computers and combine the electronic structure calculations with our in-house ab initio molecular dynamics code SHARC. Potential applications on photophysical, photochemical or photobiological systems are possible. Exploratory simulations will be carried out on quantum simulators and NISQ type devices, with emphasis on in silico applications aimed at designing photoactive materials for energy conversion and storage.

The applicant will work within in quantum chemistry and chemical dynamics group at the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, led by Prof. Leticia Gonzalez.

In this position, a one-time financial contribution of 75K will be made available.

3. Qualification profile (minimum)

4. Qualification profile (additional skills, necessary language, IT qualifications etc.)

5. Research Fields (keywords)

6. Mentor

The additional mentor for this position is Christoph Dellago.

7. Earliest Start Date: February, 2023.

See the article here:
Moritz Schlick Postdoc, Quantum Computing for excited state chemistry and chemical dynamics job with UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA | 308872 - Times Higher...

Amir Naveh, CPO & Co-founder of Classiq

Sector: Quantum computing

Founders: Nir Minerbi, Amir Naveh, Dr. Yehuda Naveh

Investors: Entre Capital, Team8, Wing Capital, IN-Venture, Phoenix, HSBC, HPE, NTT, Awz Ventures, OurCrowd

Classical computers can do amazing things, we've seen that in the past 80 years. But some things they're unable to do, explained Amir Naveh, CPO and Co-founder of Classiq. From drug discovery to efficient fertilizer, development, to doing high-performance stuff that computers are not very good at doing. Quantum computers can do all these things, and they can do it with amazing efficiencies All of this is going to happen in the coming few years and in the next 20 years we will see a full-blown revolution."

Classiq has developed a technological solution that enables the development of software for quantum computers which is similar to advanced software development for regular computers. The solution developed by the company is protected by more than 20 patents, and the company's software development platform is considered the most advanced in the world of quantum computing.

Classiq has been selected as one of "Tomorrow's Growth Companies" according to Qumra Capital. This year, for the fourth year in a row, Qumra published its list of the most promising growth companies in Israeli high-tech, naming those who are on the path to becoming the next big thing.

This is, for me, the journey of a lifetime. It is amazing technology, the company is growing really fast I really hope to see this quantum revolution going from a research phase to more actual practical usage applications. Once it starts it will be exponential. It won't be twice as good it will be a thousand times better, a million times better. It's hard to imagine how the world is going to change but I hope in the next decade we will see some amazing things.

You can watch the full interview in the video above.

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"Once the quantum revolution starts it will be exponential" - CTech