German giant SAP is making a move rarely seen in players of this scale: it is beginning to professionalise the structures under a technology that is still largely trapped in laboratories. The appointment of Carsten Polenz as Chief Quantum Officer and the formation of a double-digit team of experts is a signal that Walldorf does not intend to just watch the quantum revolution from the sidelines.
SAP’s strategy is strikingly pragmatic. Instead of building its own hardware, the company is focusing on the application layer and optimisation problems that have been a bottleneck in supply chains for decades. Philipp Herzig, SAP’s CTO, openly admits that quantum programming requires ‘unlearning’ classical computer science. This confession from a technology leader highlights the depth of the barrier to entry – in the world of quantum, algorithms do not operate on zero-one logic, but on probabilities, allowing millions of scenarios for loading trucks or scheduling production to be analysed simultaneously.
For the average CFO or logistician, SAP’s ‘quantum revolution’ is supposed to be paradoxically dull and invisible. ERP systems are supposed to use quantum computers like specialised accelerators in the cloud – sending a complex mathematical task there and receiving the finished, optimised result in a fraction of a second. This ‘Quantum-as-a-Service’ approach is intended to protect customers from the complexity of the infrastructure itself, while giving them the tools to drastically reduce costs and CO2 emissions by eliminating empty runs in logistics.
But behind the promise of performance lies an existential threat, referred to in the industry as ‘Q-Day’. The moment when quantum computers become powerful enough to break current encryption standards spends security architects’ sleepless nights. SAP, which manages the data of thousands of global corporations, must play on two fields simultaneously: building the algorithms of the future and implementing post-quantum cryptography to secure the foundations of today’s business.
