UK’s Orca Computing to head up $12m quantum data center project

(DataCenterDynamics) London-based quantum computing firm Orca is leading a project to build the quantum-safe data center of the future, backed by £9 million ($12m) from the UK government.
Orca, along with KETS Quantum Security, will look into how quantum technology can help to integrate data centers with emerging quantum technologies. Among the benefits will be securing data against future attacks from quantum systems. It’s the largest item in a £50 million ($67.8m) package of projects announced by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a body sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Orca, working with KETS and other project partners including BT, will explore how quantum systems will work alongside existing and future data centers, to manage and secure increasingly complex data. Already, some are warning that thieves are harvesting and storing existing data for eventual decruption by quantum cryptography algorithms, so the project will look at making today’s data centers “quantum safe”, as well as the potential for future quantum data centers.
“In today’s world we don’t go 30 seconds with touching digital technology, all of which is networked, none of which is quantum-safe, and increasingly it’s being processed and stored as high value treasure troves of information in data centers, said Chris Erven, CEO at KETS. “Tomorrow we’ll be making all of the classical data you’re sending to the cloud quantum-safe. The day after we’ll help make the quantum data you’re se
The project look at the internal operation of modern data centers, as well as how users access data and computing resources remotely, to provide a future-proof system that is secured against both conventional and quantum computing attacks, said KETS. It will look at tools including quantum random number generation, quantum key distribution and post-quantum cryptography.