How IBM’s Quantum Safe Migration Orchestrator coordinates quantum safe migration

IBM Quantum Safe Migration Orchestrator (QSMO), powered by IBM Research, is an AI-driven platform, exclusively used by IBM Consulting, designed to help organizations navigate the complexities of a multi-year quantum safe transformation journey. IBM QSMO goes far beyond cryptographic discovery to deliver orchestration, automation, and strategic execution.

Quantum computing is revolutionizing industries, but it also introduces one of the most disruptive security challenges of our time. The very cryptographic algorithms that protect our financial transactions, personal identities and national infrastructure are at risk. This threat has made quantum-safe migration not just a technical concern, but a strategic business priority.

Two critical realities underscore the need for immediate action:

1. Harvest now, decrypt later: Adversaries are already collecting encrypted data today, with the intent to decrypt it once quantum capabilities mature. This means sensitive information is vulnerable long before quantum computers become mainstream.
2. Cryptographic debt: Every new system deployed with legacy encryption adds to the future burden of remediation. The longer organizations wait, the more complex and costly the transition becomes.

Cryptographic environments are deeply embedded across applications, APIs, networks, and vendor platforms. Traditional tools offer some visibility but fall short of enabling enterprise-wide, risk-prioritized transformation.

IBM Quantum Safe Migration Orchestrator has 7 new capabilities and benefits:

• Risk-based prioritization: Identifies and ranks high-risk business assets based on a multi-dimensional quantum threat modeling.
• Decomposition: Systematic decomposition of business assets into relevant IT components according to their exposure to quantum threats.
• Migration planning: Establish tailored, multi-horizon migration roadmaps balancing urgency, feasibility, compliance and quantum readiness of components (for example constraint management).
• Enterprise-wide visibility: Captures known and hidden dependencies across hybrid IT environments and infrastructure components.
• Governance and reporting: Provides dashboards and compliance-ready reporting for CISOs, CIOs and boards.
• Strategic integration: Options for integration with Change Management Databases (CMDB), Cryptographic Bills of Materials (CBOM), CI/CD pipelines, PKI, CLM and KMS to turn plans into action.
• Business context enrichment: Enhances raw discovery data with business relevance to ensure investments are focused where they matter most.

Unlike traditional cryptographic inventory tools that act as passive scanners, IBM QSMO is a full-fledged orchestrator. It doesn’t just tell you where the risks are, it helps you understand which ones matter most, how to address them and how to execute a transformation aligned with your business priorities and constraints from dependencies. 

IBM QSMO has been successfully validated and is actively being used by IBM’s CIO and several IBM clients to support their quantum safe migration journey.

Quantum-safe migration is a strategic, multi-year transformation. IBM’s QSMO empowers organizations to move from awareness to action, with intelligence, orchestration and automation at every step.

Backed by the IBM Research that led three of the NIST PQC algorithms and the CBOM standard, and recognized by Frost & Sullivan as a global leader in post-quantum cryptography, IBM Consulting is uniquely positioned to guide enterprises through this critical evolution.

Learn more about IBM Quantum Safe Transformation Services