IBM focusing on Backward Compatibility In Quantum Computing Offering

(Armonk, NY) In a Bold Move, International Business Machines (IBM) is betting on backward compatibility with its legacy offerings to compete in the nascent quantum computing market. "Our target customer is a large IT operation that has invested significantly in our legacy solution offerings. We don't want quantum computing to be a reason to question their past investments in our solutions. Many of our customers still use Lotus Notes, Star Networking, System 360 mainframes, and Selectric typewriters; we can't just leave them behind." Stated IBM CEO, Arvind Krishna in an interview with CIO Magazine. "What about the gals in the typing pool? They should be able to "quantum," too. "

In recent years, IBM has struggled in cloud computing and AI versus more agile and forward-looking companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. For example, IBM's AI offering, Watson, is seen as dated and rigid compared to large language AI models offered by Open AI/Microsoft and Google. "We will move forward by looking back," stated Krishna. "The traditional IBM buyer still lives in the data room. They want a product resembling a mainframe with many lights and wires. They are more concerned about backward compatibility and maintaining order in their data center. Sure, our competitors offer a larger number of qubits with higher quality at a lower cost, but we offer connectivity to almost all the systems we have produced in the past 50 years. We have thousands of engineers working to port over our traditional mainframe offerings to our quantum computing platform. Soon we will be offering "Q-Cobol", "Q-AS-400", all capable of running on our Quantum System one."

Heather Hangus, Deputy IT Director for the Arkansas Department of Motor Vehicles, stated, "I just want something that will not complicate my life. Travel budgets are tight, and I don't want to attend another vendor's user group meeting. Selecting IBM's quantum computing offering will reduce the travel I have to do in a year, allowing me to focus on my pickleball skills. Also, at last year's event, they offered mildly spiced food, which does not keep me up at night," stated an enthusiastic Hangus. Ranga Jayaraman, CIO of the Topeka Rapid Transit District, expressed his enthusiasm for the IBM quantum computing offers, "We have had a horrible winter this year in Kansas. Our IBM account manager told us the user group meeting would be in Tampa, Florida. I would do almost anything to get out of this cold."

Krishna waved off any questions related to backward compatibility use cases. "This is a case of if you build it, they will come. Once they see DB2 running on our System One platform, their imaginations will run wild," stated Krishna. "It will be like Watson all over again." 

Fact Checker: I want to quantum too!