OQC & Cyxtera win DatacenterDynamics, Data Centre Project of the Year

In September 2022, OQC proudly announced the world’s first integration of a quantum computer into a colocation data centre: enabling customers to access OQC’s quantum quantum computer through their current digital infrastructure, providing Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), for the first time ever. Now, just 14 months later, we are offering the ability to connect via private-QCaaS to our latest generation technology OQC Toshiko – the world’s first and only enterprise-ready platform, via Tokyo and London. Through our web-service API, pre-registered users are able to authenticate against the service, and then submit QASM 2.0 programs to be queued for running on selected specific computer systems, with results returned on program completion.

A winning partnership

After a busy year getting our latest computer ready for enterprise use, we are thrilled to have won Datacenter Dynamics ‘European Data Centre Project of the Year’ award! This is a fantastic acknowledgement in our mission of putting quantum into the hands of humanity. This award is dedicated to projects from across Europe that have deployed the most novel engineering, design and construction strategies.

Cyxtera’s LHR3 data centre in Reading is home to the company’s new AI + Quantum Centre of Excellence (COE) that serves as a testing and activation hub for companies exploring how to leverage AI and quantum computing in their environments. By providing access to technology providers and strategic partners – as well as the ability to knit them together via it’s Digital Exchange network fabric – they have established a secure testing lab for AI and quantum workloads.

Their deeply connected, intelligently automated global data centre platform offers not only world-class performance, security, and reliability, but also a true partnership that includes dynamic, flexible solutions designed to deliver customer agility in today’s world of distributed hybrid IT.

The world’s first quantum colocation

This project took the world’s first step in moving quantum computing from a lab into a fully managed, industry-ready environment with the security, interconnectivity, network bandwidth and redundant infrastructure that is needed as the technology matures. The partnership makes quantum computing more accessible to organisations, and narrows the quantum divide to meet the requirements of future AI and quantum workloads.

OQC’s colocation model has been comprehensively designed to support complete data sovereignty: by encapsulating both the physical quantum computer and auxiliary services inside the colocation environment, customers never need to send data over the public internet. Not only is this better from a security perspective, it ensures much lower round-trip times via fewer hops and higher bandwidth on dedicated connections.

A quantum-enabled future

Colocation data centres provide the optimum environment to utilise the power of quantum computing, not only allowing easy, secure access that will enable life-changing discoveries, but by helping to solve our growing computational needs. Our world-first integrations are just the first step in our mission, as we continue to pioneer Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), to create a sustainable, flexible, and secure solution for the changing digital world.

To do so, we believe we need to continue to partner with the best to remedy the barriers of quantum and bring its limitless capabilities into the hands of humanity, to solve the world’s most complex problems.

To discover more about quantum colocation in our whitepaper.