IonQ + Azure = Quantum Now Accessible to Everyone

In August, we announced IonQ Aria’s availability on the Azure Quantum platform. It’s a significant milestone for us, but more importantly, it’s a massive milestone for quantum computing. With this advancement, we’re making one of the world’s most powerful quantum systems available to potentially millions of users, paving the way for new quantum applications in areas like machine learning and logistics.

Today, we want to go deeper on how it works: We've partnered with Azure Quantum to launch Aria on the public cloud, letting users from around the world access the most powerful quantum computer on the market.

Aria is available through a monthly subscription offering in the Azure Quantum marketplace, and users who purchase the subscription will receive a monthly allotment of credits, valid for jobs on both Aria and Harmony via the Azure Quantum console. Those users can now run quantum simulations and algorithms on Aria, whose algorithmic qubit (#AQ) count of 25, lets users develop those models faster than any previous generation of quantum computers. (Users already can access IonQ’s original Harmony quantum system on Azure; Aria continues to be available via the private IonQ cloud as well.)

Some readers may already have benefitted from Aria since we launched the system in a public beta earlier this year, and have begun using the system to develop algorithms that mitigate risk in finance, model chemical reactions within EV batteries, and improve image classification and 3D object detection for future vehicles. 

Customers who prefer accessing Aria directly, through our APIs, will continue to be able to do so.  Availability of Aria on both Azure Quantum and through IonQ's direct cloud helps deliver on our goal of offering flexibility to our end users.

At IonQ, we believe that quantum computers should be accessible to as many companies, research teams and academic institutions as possible. By making Aria available in an exclusive cloud partnership with Azure Quantum, we’re expanding access to quantum computing for people working to solve the problems that have stumped scientists, financial analysts, economists and so many others for far too long. 

“Commercial demand for quantum systems on the Azure Quantum platform is incredible, and partnering with system providers like IonQ makes it possible for us to provide our global customers with the tools they need to answer the questions of tomorrow,” said Dr. Krysta Svore, General Manager of Quantum Systems at Microsoft. “The availability of IonQ Aria and IonQ Harmony offers users even more choice when it comes to selecting the right quantum hardware for their specific needs.”

Interested in exploring Aria on Azure for your own organization? Customers who purchase access to IonQ Aria through Azure Quantum will receive premium onboarding, consultation services and technical support as part of a monthly subscription plan. And: the Azure quantum credit program makes $500 trial credits and $10,000 research credits available to qualified teams 

To get started with Azure Quantum, just drop us a line and let us know you are interested

If you’d like to learn more about what we’re doing to bring the future of quantum forward, while putting quantum systems within the reach of more organizations, check out recent news about our commercial partnerships with Hyundai Motors to develop better performing batteries for electric vehicles, in addition to using quantum machine learning for object detection in future vehicles. And read about our work with GE Research which demonstrated quantum’s effectiveness for mitigating risk in scenarios where multiple factors influenced each other.