On the edge of something new

7

October

2020

No ratings yet.

We are entering an era where new two technologies for computing are becoming more and more crucial. The two computing types, quantum and edge, will have a crucial impact on computing power and will increase the processing abilities enormously.

I already quickly mentioned quantum computing in my other article about the DARQ technologies (see here), and in this article I want to dive deeper into what quantum computing is, its benefits, and its differences to edge computing, since the two are sometimes seen as similar, which they aren’t.

 

The most important about quantum computing
While the explanation of quantum computing and its functionalities can fill books, I try to put it short and point out the most important. Basically, quantum computers are able to solve problems that ‘traditional’ computers cannot solve, mainly because the ‘traditional computers’ can only process information displayed through 1s or 0s. The ability of quantum computers to solve more difficult problems is derived from the ability for the 1s and 0s to exist in two states (qubits) at once, making the bytes able to hold four values at the same time: 00, 01, 10, and 11. That way, a quantum computer can perform computations in parallel, crucially increasing their computing power and therefore their efficiency in comparison to ‘traditional’ computers.

However, to perform those actions, quantum computers require special algorithms, which have yet to be defined. Scientists have been researching for ages with yet to find a way to define usable algorithms to make quantum computing usable in large scale.

 

The most important about edge computing
With the constant development and improvement of technologies like XR, autonomous vehicles, or IoT, the demand for instant calculations and minimal latency of data exchange is increasing. Most technologies do not ‘have time’ to wait for their requests to travel across networks, reach a computing core, be processed, and then be send back. The computing is required to be performed either closer to the device, or ideally, within it, in order to reduce latency.

To meet this need, edge computing is on the rise. The idea of edge computing is, to perform the computations either near or right at the source of data, reducing the latency that cloud-computing cannot avoid, by running fewer processes in the cloud. However, edge computing is not there to replace cloud-computing but rather to work alongside with it. A clear division of computations that need immediate feedback along with processes that can withstand a certain latency will drastically increase the speed and efficiency of processes*.

 

Why are the technologies crucial?
Both technologies have a direct impact on several other technological advances, like the DARQ technologies mentioned in my other article, increasing speed, efficiency and security, but also technologies used in the healthcare or automotive industry for example.

The necessity and potential of both computational technologies can be seen in the increased research efforts by big companies like Google, Amazon or Verizon. In 2019, Google set a new benchmark for computational speed with a new kind of processor, and Verzion/Amazon introduced a 5G edge cloud computing partnership, to launch IoT devices and applications the edge.

 

With the constant increase in the collection of data and the requests being computed by processors, the need for technological advances is there. Both of the technologies create ample opportunities within the industries to succeed and drive innovation and change. However, as usual the big tech companies are at the forefront of exploring and developing those technologies.

 

What’s your pick?
Will smaller companies be able to shape and use the technologies soon or do they need to wait until bigger companies will make them available in large scale?

 

 

_____________________________________________

*Please note: When we talk about ‘immediate’ feedback to computational requests, the differences between edge computing and cloud computing are within microseconds. However, this difference could become crucial in several situations, as for example in the avoidance of traffic accidents through autonomous vehicles, which is why it is mentioned at this point.

 

Sources
https://futuretodayinstitute.com/trend/quantum-and-edge/
https://www.keyinfo.com/ai-quantum-computing-and-other-trends/
https://www.upgrad.com/blog/trending-technologies-in-2020/

Please rate this

Are You Safe Against Quantum Computers? – Part 2: Quantum Cryptography

6

October

2020

5/5 (4)

In my previous blog post, you could read about classical cryptography and a fraction of the vast amount of use cases for quantum computers. In addition, we established that quantum computers make use of two particular phenomena: superposition and entanglement. In this blog post, you can read about why quantum cryptography is already a use case today for some organizations.

A classical computer will take longer than the current age of the universe to crack RSA-encryption, whereas a quantum computer will be capable to crack RSA-encryption in just seconds.

Harvesting the quantum world
As a result of the quantum behavior, quantum computers can calculate solutions to hard problems exponentially faster than all the computers that exist in the world today combined (including the most powerful supercomputers). Imagine the potential as follows. When you are computing the fastest route in a maze, a classical computer would have to decide at every junction to go one way or the other. This can be represented as going left (0) or right (1). A quantum computer, however, would not have to decide on one way: it just follows every path there can be at the same time by making use of superposition and entanglement. This can be represented as going left (0) and right (1). This allows for its exponential improvement in performance over classical computed bits.

Quantum Cryptography
Now, regarding cryptography, a classical computer will take longer than the current age of the universe to crack RSA-encryption (300 trillion years), whereas a quantum computer will be capable to crack RSA-encryption in just 10 seconds. That’s just the power of nature right there. So, do you have to be afraid right now? Not yet. At least, if you don’t care about the data you have today in 10 years. Quantum computers that can crack RSA-encryption will not exist for a while, but there are a couple of companies and governments that have to hurry right now. Imagine that you are able to steal information from a company or government today. Then you are probably not able to decrypt it right now. However, if you hold it on for 10 years, then a quantum computer can decrypt it fairly easily. This is only useful if the data is still relevant in 10 years. So, companies and governments that have such sensitive, time-invariant data that cannot be made public have to become resistant against quantum computing right now! Therefore, the National Institute of Standards and Technology is bringing together bright minds to come up with new encryption algorithms that are quantum resistant. But this takes time. And until then, sensitive, time-invariant data is at risk.

Were you intrigued by my posts? Rate them! And if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this amazing topic, let me know below!

Please rate this

Are You Safe Against Quantum Computers? – Part 1: How Do Quantum Computers Work?

6

October

2020

5/5 (5)

It is Blue Monday when you are leaving for the skiing holiday. You take the train to the airport, but everything is against you today. The train is delayed because the train table has been changed to bad-weather-conditions. Since you are waiting for the train to come, you decide to check your stock portfolio. Maybe that makes you a little bit more happy. Unfortunately, you lost money again. After one hour of delay, you arrive at the airport 30 minutes before departure. Luckily, you caught your flight. Just when you are chilling out, the pilot broadcasts that a stopover will be made because the airport of destination has become overcrowded with too many planes landing at the same time. After two hours of extra delay, you finally arrive at the ski resort. But then, Blue Monday really kicked in: your rheumatism begins showing its annoying symptoms again.

“Quantum computing could identify patterns that will allow us to identify something like COVID-19 earlier.” – Heather West, Senior Research Analyst at IDC

A quanta of solutions
This is an example with problems that occur to many people around the world at a daily rate. However, this might not be for too long anymore! Quantum computers are potentially capable to address aforementioned problems exponentially faster than contemporary computers. Scheduling, portfolio optimization, route optimization, and personalized medicine are just a small fraction of the vast amount of problems that quantum computers can potentially solve (see video below). If full quantum computers existed today, COVID-19 would not even be such an issue right now. But how? With quantum computers? That sounds like something of the far future? But it is closer than you think. Although mainstream use cases are probably out for more than 10 years from now, one use case is already important yesterday for some organizations: cryptography.

Classical cryptography
Most contemporary cryptography is based on RSA-encryption and is used by for example, websites, banks, and even some cryptocurrency. It is based on a mathematical problem that is called a one-way function. In this case, it means that it is easy to multiply two prime numbers and get a solution, but it is very hard to only have the solution and find the two corresponding prime numbers. For small prime numbers this is easy to do. But the larger the prime numbers get, the exponentially harder it becomes to solve. This is where the strength of quantum computing lies.

Magical behavior
Quantum computing is a form of computing that makes use of the laws of physics for the smallest particles in the universe, called quanta (hence: quantum computing). The laws of physics for these tiny particles are very different from what we are used to in our daily lives. This odd behavior is exactly what quantum computers make use of. Without going too much into the intricacies of the quantum world, this odd behavior results in two phenomena: superposition and entanglement. Shortly, superposition means that a particle can be at an infinite possible locations at the same time. Entanglement means that all these particles that are in a superposition are connected with each other: a change in one particle directly affects the other particle faster than the speed of light – this is not a lie! This might sound like magic to you, but it is not.

“Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet.” – Arthur C. Clarke

So, if you don’t understand it fully, that is ok. Just imagine that these quantum particles can behave in this strange way.

That is a lot to digest. So, take a break and come back later to read more about why quantum cryptography is already a use case today in my next blog post.

Please rate this

Welcome to the DARQ side

3

October

2020

No ratings yet.

As future-minded business leaders are looking to proceed, from simply using multiple digital tools available to them towards finding, evaluating, and implementing new ones, DARQ plays an essential role. It’s not only about the usage of technology but also about the interaction of business partners, individuals, and employees through technology.

 

What is DARQ?
DARQ describes the new technologies that are on the rise, namely: (D)istributed Ledger Technology, (A)rtificial Intelligence, Extended (R)eality, and (Q)uantum Computing. While each of the technology itself already opens up huge opportunities for businesses, applying them collectively will create unimagines paths into the future. While DARQ is essential, it cannot work for companies, that haven’t mastered the necessity of the so-called SMAC areas. SMAC represents (S)ocial, (M)obile, (A)nalytics, and (C)loud.

While AI is seen as the most important technology within the DARQ bundle, mostly because it’s the most commonly tested and used technology out of the pack, the combination of all four technological advances will be the essential topic to focus on. 92% of respondents in global research of Accenture answered, that they see the combination of those technologies as the biggest driver for transformation within their company.

 

Is DARQ beneficial?
Even though DARQ surfaced in multiple reports in 2019 already, it still seems like it’s on the verge of being actually evaluated by companies. While companies are still making their first experiences with one of the technologies, only a small number of companies is actually already trying to combine several of them. Further, a lot of companies are already struggling with the technologies of SMAC, making it even more complicated for them to proceed with the DARQ technologies. At the same time, most of the bigger digital leaders already succeed in the usage of the SMAC technology, enjoying a competitive and strategic advantage to proceed with the implementation with and improvement through DARQ technologies, leaving the others even further behind. While those companies are likely to benefit, it’s hard to tell how that advantage will impact the others, probably requiring governments to step in to avoid further monopoly formation.

 

iRobot incoming
The following paragraph is neither scientifically proven nor relevant for the technologies themselves. However, I want to share it since I found it interesting to think about:

While researching, I stumbled across the coincidence of DARQ being an abbreviation for technologies, that pose the risk of obscuring processes, ecosystems, and functionality from human beings.
Distributed Ledger Technology, like Blockchain, uses anonymization, making it harder to identify individuals within the ecosystems. So people are fading away “into the darkness”.
There is some similarity to Artificial Intelligence. While right now most algorithms still need human interaction to be improved, at a certain point the algorithms are thought to improve by themselves. If that point is reached, humans could lose traction of what is going on inside systems. The algorithms would become “black boxes”, delivering what they are designed to, but without individuals knowing how they are doing so.
I talked about Extended Reality (XR) in my other article, and from what I wrote it could be inferred that XR could make reality and fantasy merge to a point, where people have a hard time distinguishing between both. Missing interaction could turn people into “shadows” of themselves, not leaving their houses or apartments anymore, living in the digital space only…
For Quantum Computing I couldn’t think of an analogy to the “darkness” part, but since it will be the driver to enable, and improve the technologies it’s simply part of it 😉

 

What’s your take? Is it just a coincidence or is DARQ a statement?

 

 

Sources:
https://www.accenture.com/de-de/insights/technology/new-emerging-technologies-darq
https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/insights/communications-media/darqpower-new-emerging-technologies
https://www.computerwoche.de/a/von-darq-technik-und-momentanen-maerkten,3548122

Please rate this