MT Newswires Exclusive: Quantum Technology for Computing Will Be Next 'Big Jump' in Tech, Cisco Italy CEO Says

(MT Newswires) -- Quantum technology adoption for computing will be the next "big jump" in technology globally, said Gianmatteo Manghi, chief executive officer of Cisco Italy.

"This will happen in the next five to seven years and the implications are very relevant," Manghi said in an exclusive interview with MT Newswires at The European House - Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy.

Several companies have recently announced breakthroughs toward implementing quantum technology, an industry that stands to add $1.3 trillion in value by 2035 to automotive, chemical, financial services and life-sciences industries, which likely will be the first four segments to see economic gains, according to global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Investors put $2.35 billion into quantum tech startups in 2022, the company said.

Computers will perform at high levels and will have the ability to enable "purposeful adoption" of artificial intelligence software applications, Manghi said. Adoption also will require analysis of encryption processes and how to make data "more secure and quantum-ready," he said.

A complete overhaul may be needed to fend off hackers.

"If you have a password of 12 alphanumeric digits including symbols, with the route of force attack now if it is possible to continue that attack, a hacker will take years to find a password," he said. "If (a hacker) would use a supercomputer based on quantum, it would take seconds."

McKinsey earlier this year said only about 5,000 quantum computers will be operational by 2030 and the hardware and software needed to handle the most complex problems might not exist until 2035 or later. The firm also said the automotive, chemicals, financial services and life sciences sectors stand to gain $1.27 trillion in value by 2035 as they're expected to see the first impact from quantum computing.

Manghi said Cisco wants to integrate AI into the quantum networking solutions it's building starting in about six months. The company is developing digital intelligence capabilities to improve its cybersecurity protection and putting AI features into its networks for predictive maintenance.

"We are focused on quantum networking because quantum networking is the enabler of everything," Manghi said. "Quantum computers can work only with quantum networking [and] quantum security [and] quantum-ready security can work only if we can transmit the encryption of data [and] the new algorithms through a quantum network."

A transition toward cloud computing and cloud services is underway as indicated by the Italian government's launch of a public cloud platform, known as the Polo Strategico Nazionale, or National Strategic Hub, in late 2022, Manghi said.

The goal is to enable 75% of Italian administrations to use cloud services by 2026. When complete, it will host critical and strategic data and services of the central administrations of Italy, the country's local health authorities and the local administrations in the country.

Monitoring and managing application performance and customer experience remains a focus for Cisco Italy, though several factors can influence cloud-computing services, Manghi said.

"The main sources of issues can be the network - so it can be a mobile network or a fixed network, and you have to monitor the network and understand what and where the issue is," he said. "It can be the code, so you can have lines of code that are not working well so you need to understand and fix those lines.

"It can be the device. So the ability to really have a [diagnosis] of what is not going well and promptly act to fix that is the key and this is where we are really focusing on - the ability to monitor end-to-end device, network, cloud and application."

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