New quantum cloud region signals increased commercial focus

Quantum computing promises a revolution in scientific discovery and commercial applications. If realized, its main advantage over traditional computing would be its ability to find answers to problems that cannot be reasonably solved using today's deterministic computer technology in human timescales. Many such problems remain unsolvable because, as their size increases (i.e., the number of input parameters), the computational steps required to fully solve them escalate dramatically — showing polynomial or higher time complexity.

The potential advantage of quantum computing lies with algorithms, not hardware speeds. Quantum algorithms can speed up execution by taming the increase in computational steps with problem size. Although research is progressing fast, there is still no guarantee that a practical and valuable quantum computer will ever be realized. This is mostly due to the engineering difficulty of suppress error rates and system decoherence — and in part because classical computers and algorithms are also rapidly progressing.