(MarketScreener) SAP has been conducting research into quantum technologies for many years and has built up considerable expertise in the process. According to Andrey Hoursanov, strategy lead for Quantum Technology at SAP Security Research, “Many customers are already asking where SAP is on its quantum tech journey. After all, we have shared interests in exploiting the technology”.
The SAP Security Research team is tasked with looking into these questions and exploring ways of harnessing the exponential computer power quantum computing promises. At the same time, protecting business-critical data must remain a priority, because as quantum computing advances, its raw computing power poses an increasing threat to today’s encryption schemes as quantum technologies might decode them relatively quickly.
“We began looking into quantum technologies about five years ago. We’re now examining its implications for areas such as data security,” says Andrey Hoursanov.
“If quantum technologies realize their potential, we may in the future be able to solve complex tasks that even the most powerful supercomputers fail at today,” says Martin Heinig, head of New Ventures and Technologies at SAP.
In logistics, for example, the optimal route, mode of transportation, and product quantity for deliveries could be identified at each point in the supply chain and updated in real time as conditions change. For other industries too, enterprise software solutions from SAP could simulate business processes more easily and infinitely faster.
Quantum technologies could also massively accelerate machine learning in SAP solutions by making artificial intelligence (AI) super-intelligent and allowing training data to be fed into the software more quickly.
But the benefits of the immense computing power promised by quantum technologies also pose a major challenge to conventional encryption methods.
For SAP, preparing for the quantum era means securing critical and sensitive data using post-quantum and quantum-resistant cryptosystems.
Making quantum technologies commercially viable requires cooperation between industry and academia and involvement in multidisciplinary consortia. SAP is part of the EU Quantum Flagship, one of the EU’s largest research initiatives, and a founding member of both the European Quantum Industry Consortium and the Quantum Technology and Application Consortium, where it is working with leading experts, quantum technology players, and future consumers of quantum technologies – many of which are SAP customers.