Quantum computing plays a crucial role in solving complex problems for which classical supercomputers require an impractical amount of time. This emerging paradigm has the potential to revolutionize various fields such as cryptography, chemistry, and finance, making it a highly relevant area of research and development. Major companies such as Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft, along with prestigious research institutions such as Oxford and MIT, are investing significant efforts into advancing this technology. However, the lack of a standardized approach among different providers poses challenges for developers to effectively access and utilize quantum computing resources. In this study, we propose a quantum orchestrator that is designed to facilitate the orchestration and execution of quantum circuits across multiple quantum service providers. The proposed solution aims to simplify the process for developers and facilitate the execution of quantum tasks using resources offered by different providers. The proposal is validated with the implementation of the proposed orchestrator for Amazon Braket and IBM Quantum. It can support both quantum and classical developers in defining, configuring, and executing circuits independently of the selected provider.
Quantum computing plays a crucial role in solving complex problems for which classical supercomputers require an impractical amount of time. This emerging paradigm has the potential to revolutionize various fields such as cryptography, chemistry, and finance, making it a highly relevant area of research and development. Major companies such as Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft, along with prestigious research institutions such as Oxford and MIT, are investing significant efforts into advancing this technology. However, the lack of a standardized approach among different providers poses challenges for developers to effectively access and utilize quantum computing resources. In this study, we propose a quantum orchestrator that is designed to facilitate the orchestration and execution of quantum circuits across multiple quantum service providers. The proposed solution aims to simplify the process for developers and facilitate the execution of quantum tasks using resources offered by different providers. The proposal is validated with the implementation of the proposed orchestrator for Amazon Braket and IBM Quantum. It can support both quantum and classical developers in defining, configuring, and executing circuits independently of the selected provider.
Quantum computing holds significant potential across various fields such as cybersecurity, finance, and health-care, among many others. However, we currently face multiple limitations such as the low availability of computers, the underutilization of available qubits, and the ever-increasing number of users, which results in prolonged waiting times. This, combined with the cost of executions, limits access to quantum computing. To address these challenges, we propose a scheduling process to optimize task execution on quantum computers. The proposed scheduling process unifies multiple circuits to enhance the efficiency of resource utilization in quantum machines. This approach allows for better use of available qubits and reduces the associated execution costs. We validate the proposed method employing various quantum algorithms by systematically examining the scheduling process through a comparative case study between two quantum service providers: IBM Quantum and Amazon Braket. This validation has shown that the scheduling process does not generate a significant impact on the results, ensuring similar results to single circuit executions with a fraction of the cost.
Abstract After decades of advances, mainly theoretical, in recent years quantum computing has begun to show its first practical applications. This new and revolutionary technology aims to enhance essential areas such as cybersecurity, financial services, or medicine. The growth of this technology has encouraged different research centers and big companies such as IBM, Amazon, and Google to dedicate considerable efforts to developing new technologies that bring quantum computing to the market. However, these technologies are not yet mature and create a significant vendor lock-in problem. Therefore, new tools are needed that facilitate access to this technology and that allow developers to increase the abstraction level at which they work. Given that the integration of quantum software should not be very different from that of classical services, we can take advantage of the knowledge acquired and use current techniques of service-oriented computing. In this work, we have carried out a technical comparison between different quantum computing service providers using a case study, by performing empirical tests based on the Travelling Salesman Problem. This study highlights the differences between the main providers. To address these differences and reduce the vendor lock-in effect, we propose an extension of the Quantum API Gateway to support the different providers and the casuistry that each one presents. This would allow programmers to deploy quantum code without vendor-specific knowledge of the major providers, which would facilitate access and simplify the development of quantum applications.
Quantum Computing (QC) is transitioning from theoretical frameworks to an indispensable powerhouse of computational capability, resulting in extensive adoption across both industrial and academic domains. QC presents exceptional advantages, including unparalleled processing speed and the potential to solve complex problems beyond the capabilities of classical computers. Nevertheless, academic researchers and industry practitioners encounter various challenges in harnessing the benefits of this technology. The limited accessibility of QC resources for classical developers, and a general lack of domain knowledge and expertise, represent insurmountable barrier, hence to address these challenges, we introduce a framework- Quantum Computing as a Service for Hybrid Classical-Quantum Software Development (QCSHQD), which leverages service-oriented strategies. Our framework comprises three principal components: an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for user interaction, an abstraction layer dedicated to orchestrating quantum services, and a service provider responsible for executing services on quantum computer. This study presents a blueprint for QCSHQD, designed to democratize access to QC resources for classical developers who want to seamless harness QC power. The vision of QCSHQD paves the way for groundbreaking innovations by addressing key challenges of hybridization between classical and quantum computers.
The rapid growth of quantum computing calls for more accessible, interoperable, and collaborative development environments. While current quantum providers allow remote execution of quantum circuits, developers still face significant challenges due to fragmented programming models, lack of standardization, and limited support for collaboration. In response to these issues, this work introduces a web-based tool that integrates three key capabilities: visual circuit design, realtime collaborative editing, and deployment of quantum circuits as services. This feature enables multiple developers to codesign quantum circuits synchronously, in the spirit of cloudbased collaborative tools. This functionality facilitates teamwork, education, and reproducibility in quantum software engineering by allowing users to edit, share, and review quantum circuits simultaneously. In addition to collaborative editing, the tool also allows developers to automatically translate circuits into code compatible with both Qiskit and Amazon Braket, execute them on real quantum back-ends, and visualize execution results.
Abstract The development that quantum computing technologies are achieving is beginning to attract the interest of companies that could potentially be users of quantum software. Thus, it is perfectly feasible that during the next few years hybrid systems will start to appear integrating both the classical software systems of companies and new quantum ones providing solutions to problems that still remain unmanageable today. A natural way to support such integration is Service-Oriented Computing. While conceptually the invocation of a quantum software service is similar to that of a classical one, technically there are many differences and technological limitations, which refer to platform independence, decoupling, scalability, etc. To highlight these differences and the difficulties to develop quality quantum services, this paper takes a well-known problem to which a quantum solution can be provided, integer factorization, making use of the Amazon Braket quantum service platform. The exercise of trying to provide the factorization as a quantum service is carried out following the best practices, design patterns and standards existing in the implementation of classical services. This case study is used to highlight the rough edges and limitations that arise in the integration of classical-quantum hybrid systems using service-oriented computing. The conclusion of the study allows us to point out directions in which to focus research efforts in order to achieve effective quantum service-oriented computing.
Abstract Quantum computing is advancing by leaps and bounds to become a commercial reality. This revolutionary new technology aims to improve essential areas such as cybersecurity, financial services, and medicine. The growth of this technology has encouraged different research centers and big companies such as IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to dedicate considerable efforts to the development of new technologies that bring quantum computing to the market. However, these technologies are not yet mature and create a major problem of vendor lock-in. Therefore, new techniques and tools are needed to facilitate access to this technology and to allow developers to increase the level of abstraction at which they work. In this chapter, we perform a technical comparison between different quantum computing service providers using a case study by performing empirical tests based on the Traveling Salesman Problem. This study highlights the differences between the major providers. To address these differences and reduce the vendor lock-in effect, we made three proposals: an extension of the Quantum API Gateway to support the different vendors; a code generator making use of a modification of the OpenAPI specification; and a workflow to automate the continuous deployment of these services making use of GitHub Actions. This would allow programmers to deploy quantum code without specific knowledge of the major vendors, which would facilitate access and simplify the development of quantum applications.