AWS re TCS, AWS Partner On Quantum Computing

‘[Our team is] demystifying AWS for enterprises. AWS brings so many capabilities at such a fast pace. So we are trying to demystify that whole cloud space around AWS, specifically for the enterprises. And in a way, as a partner, TCS also helps demystify the enterprise for AWS because AWS does not necessarily know how to provide this work,’ says Krishna Mohan, Global Head of AWS Business Unit, TCS

Tata Consultancy Services Monday used the AWS re:Invent conference to unveil its new TCS Quantum Computing Lab on AWS as a way to help its clients more quickly adopt quantum computing on the AWS public cloud.

The TCS Quantum Computing Lab offers a virtual research and development environment that takes advantage of Amazon Braket, the AWS fully-managed quantum computing service.

TCS is very much focused on helping enterprise customers take advantage of quantum computing, said Krishna Mohan, global head of the AWS business unit of TCS

[Related: TCS’ North American Business Powers Q2 Growth]

“We are helping enterprises explore, develop, and test business solutions for quantum computing,” Mohan told CRN. “Business solutions is the most important part of what we are doing. We are also delivering technology, but we are focused on creating business solutions and in the process accelerating the adoption of quantum computing.”

TCS, which is ranked No. 2 on the CRN 2022 Solution Provider 500, has done a lot of research on quantum computing, including filing for patents, Mohan said.

“We’re doing a lot with quantum computing in a lot of industry solutions whether it is in the optimization space, cyber security and cryptography, and other business use cases,” he said. “What TCS is basically bringing in is a virtual environment for customers to come and test their use cases or develop use cases with TCS’ industry solutions. We are bringing in our research and our talent to provide a fully managed environment and service along with AWS to the customers.”

As the world’s second largest IT solution provider, TCS’ primary differentiation is its industry knowledge and its technology expert base, Mohan said.

“That’s what our AWS business unit is all about: demystifying AWS for enterprises,” he said. “AWS brings so many capabilities at such a fast pace. So we are trying to demystify that whole cloud space around AWS, specifically for the enterprises. And in a way, as a partner, TCS also helps demystify the enterprise for AWS because AWS does not necessarily know how to provide this work.”

While quantum computing is still a relatively new technology, AWS has been developing its own technology while working with others who are developing the technology including D-Wave Systems, IonQ, and Rigetti Computing, Mohan said.

“What AWS has actually done is not only their native offering of AWS Braket, but brought all these providers onto AWS,” he said. “AWS built their own as well as brought existing quantum computing onto the AWS platform. And they‘ve actually provided a complete end-to-end managed service platform. They’re not just bringing out the technology and saying, ‘Hey, guys, you figure it out.’”

TCS working with AWS, provides an end-to-end managed service which lets businesses run tests and create use cases, Mohan said.

“In one month, you can test it, you can see the results, and definitely adopt it,” he said.

TCS has several customers in pilot mode for quantum computing use cases, Mohan said. For example, the company has created an optimization solution that lets financial advisors use quantum computing provide help in real time.

“We have developed for a few of our existing asset management companies and investment banking companies a solution using quantum computing on optimization where you take real scenarios, real-time input from the market, micro and macro economics, and reduce the time to create a portfolio mix by almost 80 percent,” he said.

Other examples including helping an automotive customer use quantum computing to detect anomalies in images, help a large U.S.-based airplane manufacturer use quantum computing to look at cargo loading in real time, and help a large Fortune 10 company leverage quantum computing for genomic sequencing, he said.

TCS currently has a quantum computing team of over 200 people, Mohan said.

“These guys are experts in quantum computing, and experts in AWS Braket. These are the researchers, the masters. They look at the physics of quantum computing. Quantum computing is all about physics. We also have industry experts within the team. So we have technical experts, researchers in quantum, and industry experience, experts, all of them coming together. And our TCS research and innovation team has already filed patents for two areas in quantum, and we‘re expecting the patents any time.

TCS’ quantum computing team is located primarily in India, but the company has customer-facing teams globally, Mohan said.

TCS is continuing to invest in quantum computing, and expects the technology to become mainstream in the next 18 months, during which its pilot solutions being built for about 20 use cases could go into production, he said.

TCS’ AWS Business Unit is responsible for delivering customer transformation from the edge across the public cloud, Mohan said.

“The team is full stack in two forms,” he said. “One is full stack from an IT stack perspective: applications, data, infrastructure, and anything on the edge and also IoT. So this team is responsible for delivering the transformation. This unit is also responsible for creating solutions, creating differentiation, sales, and delivery. Normally, from what we have seen, service providers create a cloud unit that’s only responsible for sales, and not necessarily for delivery. TCS took a different approach, to not only create solutions and sell them but we‘re also accountable for delivery. So we are a top premium partner with AWS. We are in the top-three in a majority of the markets. We have 10,000-plus people certified on AWS, and almost 40,000 trained in TCS.”