Why it matters now
Quantum risk is already emerging. Sensitive data stolen today could be decrypted as quantum capabilities mature, making cryptographic agility a priority.
IBM Cloud helps organizations prepare for a quantum-safe future by protecting critical workloads, modernizing digital trust, and enabling the adoption of post-quantum cryptography.
Enterprise readiness challenge
Preparing for a quantum-safe future requires more than adopting new cryptographic standards. Most organizations face limited visibility into their cryptographic landscape, complex technology dependencies, and operational challenges that make large-scale cryptographic change difficult.
Why IBM?
IBM combines quantum leadership, enterprise security expertise, and hybrid cloud capabilities to help organizations with their quantum-safe transition with confidence.
IBM Cloud is focused on building crypto-agility, enabling organizations to adapt cryptography, security policies, and trust architectures as standards, threats, and regulations evolve.
Strategy
Preparing for a quantum-safe future requires more than replacing cryptographic algorithms. These are the stages you return to as standards evolve.
- Govern and operate
- Foundations
- Protect confidentiality
- Modernize digital trust and cryptography
- Operational maturity
Govern and operate | Continuous
Establish the visibility, governance, and risk management foundations required for a successful transition to quantum-safe security.
IBM Cloud helps organizations inventory cryptographic assets, understand application and infrastructure dependencies, assess vendor readiness, and evaluate harvest-now-decrypt-later (HNDL) risks. By providing continuous insight into cryptographic exposure and migration priorities, organizations can govern transformation efforts, support compliance planning and audit readiness, and execute a coordinated transition to post-quantum cryptography.
Foundations | 2026
IBM Cloud established a strong foundation for post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness through cryptographic discovery, dependency analysis, and platform assessments spanning algorithms, hardware, services, and third-party technologies. These activities provided visibility into quantum-vulnerable dependencies and informed a prioritized transition strategy.
Key achievements
- Progressed cryptographic discovery and dependency analysis
- Conducted PQC readiness assessments across platform, hardware, and ecosystem dependencies
- Advanced governance and cryptographic inventory foundations
- Advanced automation and tooling to support future migration activities
- Assessed IBM Cloud Key Management Services for PQC readiness
- Engaged technology vendors and ecosystem partners to align roadmaps and interoperability plans
Outcome
Established the visibility, governance, and foundational capabilities needed to support a phased transition to quantum-resistant cryptography beginning in 2027, positioning IBM Cloud to operationalize cryptographic agility and support future migration activities at scale.
Protect confidentiality | 2027
The first step toward quantum readiness is reducing risk to sensitive data and business-critical communications. As part of the shared responsibility model, IBM Cloud is modernizing communications security across platform services, endpoints, storage, and data services to help organizations address quantum-related risks and strengthen protections for sensitive data and regulated workloads with long-term confidentiality requirements.
In parallel, organizations should assess cryptographic dependencies across applications, infrastructure, hardware platforms, and third-party providers to establish a foundation for future modernization.
Core capabilities
- Secure communications and data-in-transit protection
- Quantum-safe key establishment
- Risk-based identification of high-value and long-lived data
- Technology, hardware, and ecosystem dependency assessments
- Compliance, governance, and audit readiness planning
Outcome
Reduce near-term risk while establishing visibility into the systems, dependencies, and controls that will shape the quantum readiness journey.
Beyond protecting sensitive data from Harvest Now, Decrypt Later threats, organizations should begin establishing the foundations required to address future trust-related risks. Visibility into certificates, identities, software trust relationships, and cryptographic dependencies will become increasingly important as post-quantum adoption expands.
Modernize digital trust and crypto agility | 2028
As cryptographic standards evolve, organizations need the flexibility to adapt without disrupting business operations. Beyond modernizing internal trust infrastructure, enterprises must assess application dependencies, third-party technologies, hardware platforms, and vendor ecosystems that rely on existing cryptographic standards. IBM Cloud's approach focuses on building the visibility, governance, and architectural flexibility required to support a coordinated transition to quantum-safe security.
Core capabilities
- Modern digital trust architecture
- Cryptographic lifecycle management
- Flexible key and certificate governance
- Application and infrastructure modernization planning
- Third-party readiness and transition management
- Alignment with evolving regulatory expectations
Outcome
Build the agility required to adopt emerging quantum-safe standards while maintaining operational continuity across the enterprise.
Operational maturity | 2029+
Quantum readiness becomes an ongoing operational capability rather than a one-time migration effort. Organizations must continuously govern cryptographic controls, manage vendor and technology dependencies, and support ongoing compliance and audit activities as standards and regulations evolve. IBM Cloud provides capabilities that can help enterprises establish a scalable operating model for managing cryptographic risk consistently across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
As cryptographic requirements become more complex, organizations will increasingly rely on policy-driven automation to govern cryptographic controls. Policies can help organizations align cryptographic controls with applicable regulatory obligations, sovereign requirements, workload sensitivity, performance needs, and business risk.
Core capabilities
- Policy driven crypto-agility
- Enterprise-wide governance and oversight
- Supplement your ongoing compliance and audit activities
- Hybrid security policy management
- Ongoing vendor and ecosystem readiness monitoring
- Cryptographic lifecycle and risk management
Outcome
Establish a sustainable operating model for managing cryptographic risk and quantum-safe security across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
Roadmap
IBM Cloud's roadmap combines quantum leadership, security for regulated environments, and hybrid cloud expertise to help organizations reduce risk today while building the cryptographic agility needed for a quantum-safe future.
Modernize digital trust foundations and prepare applications, infrastructure, and ecosystems for the transition to quantum-safe standards.
Platform priorities
- Modernized digital trust architecture
- Post-quantum PKI and certificate readiness
- Hybrid cryptographic transition patterns and crypto-agility enablement
- Modern identity and software trust modernization
- Infrastructure and hardware trust modernization
- Third-party ecosystem readiness support
- Alignment with emerging standards and regulations
Customer actions
- Develop cryptographic transition roadmaps
- Modernize identity, certificate, and trust processes
- Evaluate application, infrastructure, and hardware modernization requirements
- Engage vendors and technology partners on transition readiness
- Align security controls with evolving standards and regulatory requirements
Outcome
Build the agility required to adopt emerging quantum-safe standards while maintaining operational continuity across hybrid enterprise environments.
Establish an ongoing operational capability for managing cryptographic risk through continuous visibility, crypto-agility, policy-driven governance, and ecosystem readiness across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
Platform priorities
- Continuous cryptographic visibility and posture management
- Crypto-agility and algorithm lifecycle management
- Automated trust and certificate lifecycle operations
- Governance, compliance, and policy enforcement
- Continuous ecosystem and vendor readiness monitoring
- Policy driven crypto-agility
Customer actions
- Deploy quantum-safe cryptography at scale
- Integrate cryptographic risk into security operations
- Continuously validate compliance and audit requirements
- Assess vendor, technology, and ecosystem readiness
- Monitor evolving standards and adapt security controls accordingly
Outcome
Establish a sustainable operating model for managing cryptographic risk and quantum-safe security across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.
Getting started
Practical steps are available today. Organizations that start now will be better positioned to manage risk, control cost, and prepare for evolving regulatory expectations as quantum-safe requirements accelerate.
Identify the data, applications, and business processes that rely on cryptography, with particular focus on sensitive information that must remain confidential for years or decades. Assess cryptographic dependencies across applications, infrastructure, hardware platforms, and third-party technologies.
Focus modernization efforts on systems supporting critical business operations, regulated workloads, and long-lived sensitive data. Establish a risk-based approach that aligns security investments with business impact, compliance obligations, and long-term confidentiality requirements.
Organizations should design new applications, trust systems, and cryptographic architectures with flexibility as a core requirement. Quantum readiness is not simply a migration to new algorithms. It is the ability to continuously adopt emerging standards, support regulatory requirements, and evolve trust models with minimal disruption.
Establish governance, compliance, and audit processes that can adapt as regulations, industry guidance, and quantum-safe standards evolve. Engage technology providers, infrastructure partners, and third-party vendors to understand their readiness plans and align transition timelines.
Develop a phased roadmap for adopting quantum-safe capabilities across your environment. Prioritize initiatives that reduce risk today while creating a foundation for secure communications, modern digital trust, and long-term cryptographic resilience.
Looking ahead
Quantum readiness is an ongoing transformation that spans security, trust, technology, and governance. Organizations that invest in cryptographic agility today can reduce risk, meet evolving requirements, and adapt as quantum-safe standards mature.
IBM Cloud combines quantum leadership, hybrid cloud expertise, and enterprise-grade security to help organizations confidently navigate the transition to quantum-safe security.
