Alibaba Cloud and Chinese Academy of Sciences Launch Quantum Secure Communication Product on Public Cloud

Chinese tech company makes an important step in quantum communication – a quantum secure communication product lands on a public cloud, marking the internet's entry into the quantum era.

On the morning of October 14 at the 2015 Cloud Expo, Alibaba Cloud and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' GuoShan Quantum jointly announced a quantum encryption communication product. They have established multiple quantum secure transmission domains (Quantum Portal) within Alibaba Cloud's network, enabling inter‑city data‑center networking and providing unconditionally secure data transmission services.

It was revealed that Alibaba Cloud's quantum communication product has completed small‑scale testing using Alibaba services, achieving functions such as reachability, confidentiality, networking, and key distribution. This year, suitable Alibaba services will be migrated to the quantum secure domain for large‑scale validation and server launch preparation.

This is the world’s first cloud service provider to offer quantum secure transmission services, a milestone for global quantum research and cloud computing development.

The next wave of information revolution driven by quantum physics will take us into an incredible world. Scientists are gradually turning the dream of changing the world with quantum information technology into reality. As computing power surges, the risk of classical encryption being broken increases daily.

When a truly universal quantum computer emerges, it will be billions of times faster than the most advanced supercomputers. Quantum communication is currently the only confidentiality method whose security is rigorously proven, guaranteeing data safety even against future quantum computers. Quantum encrypted transmission secures information unconditionally via quantum keys, rendering interception, decryption, and hacking ineffective.

Since the 21st century, quantum communication has become a hot research topic internationally in quantum physics and information science and technology. Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Pan Jianwei and his team have propelled China to achieve an internationally leading position within less than a decade. Nature magazine commented that this marks China's rise in quantum communication, evolving from an obscure nation a decade ago to a world leader surpassing Europe and North America.

“The process of turning scientific results into real applications is long and arduous; many frontier technologies get stuck in the ‘valley of death’. Collaborating with a global company like Alibaba can greatly accelerate the commercialization of research, benefiting humanity. The rapid release of this quantum encryption product is the best proof,” said Pan Jianwei.

Alibaba Group’s CTO Dr. Wang Jian said quantum encryption communication is far more than a new encryption method; it will be a key technology for the next‑generation network information security solution, ensuring the internet remains secure for the next 50 years. Currently, the combination of cloud services and quantum encryption is the only way to apply this costly technology at scale in commercial scenarios, allowing society to reap the benefits of the quantum revolution.

“In the past, our country lagged behind in scientific and technological development, often consuming global advances. This time we have an opportunity to give the world an answer,” Wang Jian said.

At the end of July this year, Alibaba Cloud announced in Shanghai the establishment of a new laboratory jointly with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to conduct forward‑looking research in quantum information science and develop quantum computers, a focal point of competition among global tech companies in quantum research.