Technological diversity of quantum computing providers: a comparative study and a proposal for API Gateway integration

• Published in: Software quality journal 2024-03, Vol.32 (1), p.53-73
• Main Authors: Alvarado-Valiente, Jaime, Romero-Álvarez, Javier, Moguel, Enrique, García-Alonso, José, Murillo, Juan M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Application programming interface; Comparative studies; Compilers; Computer networks; Computer Science; Cybersecurity; Data Structures and Information Theory; Interpreters; Knowledge acquisition; New technology; Operating Systems; Programming Languages; Quantum computing; Research facilities; Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems; Traveling salesman problem
• ISSN: 0963-9314; 1573-1367
• DOI: 10.1007/s11219-023-09633-5

After decades of advances, mainly theoretical, in recent years quantum computing has begun to show its first practical applications. This new and revolutionary technology aims to enhance essential areas such as cybersecurity, financial services, or medicine. The growth of this technology has encouraged different research centers and big companies such as IBM, Amazon, and Google to dedicate considerable efforts to developing new technologies that bring quantum computing to the market. However, these technologies are not yet mature and create a significant vendor lock-in problem. Therefore, new tools are needed that facilitate access to this technology and that allow developers to increase the abstraction level at which they work. Given that the integration of quantum software should not be very different from that of classical services, we can take advantage of the knowledge acquired and use current techniques of service-oriented computing. In this work, we have carried out a technical comparison between different quantum computing service providers using a case study, by performing empirical tests based on the Travelling Salesman Problem. This study highlights the differences between the main providers. To address these differences and reduce the vendor lock-in effect, we propose an extension of the Quantum API Gateway to support the different providers and the casuistry that each one presents. This would allow programmers to deploy quantum code without vendor-specific knowledge of the major providers, which would facilitate access and simplify the development of quantum applications.