October 27, 2026 -- The approach to becoming quantum safe continues to evolve. Advancements in quantum computing, emerging standards and regulatory pressure are making post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration an enterprise priority. The journey to PQC has evolved beyond simply updating cryptography to an enterprise transformation and technology refresh that spans the IT technology estate, requiring organizations to orchestrate actions and execute automation. 

Research from IBM and across the industry suggests that fault-tolerant quantum computing will arrive by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks put long-lived sensitive data at a risk future risk that must be addressed today. Government and industry policy developments worldwide, including US Executive Order 14412, UK NCSC, EU’s Post-Quantum Cryptography Roadmap, Singapore, India, Australia and more, reinforce the urgency of preparing for PQC migration and introduce deadlines as early as 2030.

In 2025, IBM introduced Guardium Cryptography Manager to help enterprises get started with quantum risk insights from discovering and assessing cryptographic inventory. Building upon this product innovation, IBM is strengthening its post-quantum cryptography journey vision with the announcement of IBM Quantum Safe®, a unified suite that helps organizations confidently command their PQC migration. By bringing together strategic planning, comprehensive discovery, contextual assessment, remediation and continuous governance, the enterprise-scale solution helps teams turn migration goals into actionable plans. It also helps them work within operational constraints and make measurable progress toward quantum-resilience and a more robust cryptographic posture.

Built on IBM’s quantum safe expertise

IBM brings decades of cryptographic research and enterprise experience to the post-quantum cryptography transition. IBM researchers co-developed the algorithms behind two of the first three PQC standards published by NIST in 2024. 

Lessons from IBM’s own enterprise PQC journey, the migration of its products and services and work with clients all have played a key role in informing how IBM Quantum Safe has evolved. These experiences point to a transformation that spans both the operational IT estate and the applications and products organizations build and deliver.

Post-quantum cryptography migration will proceed in waves, shaped by risk, dependency readiness and business demand. Each wave requires analysis of technical context and dependencies, coordination with suppliers and comprehensive vendor management. A unified methodology helps teams connect these efforts across code development and IT operations, starting with planning, supporting through execution and building the crypto-agility needed to respond as standards and risks evolve.

How IBM Quantum Safe helps your organization plan and execute your PQC migration 

IBM Quantum Safe supports five connected areas of the migration journey, helping organizations align business priorities with cryptographic risk and readiness. Organizations progress through those areas iteratively and in parallel, for different domains, applications and products. The key is defining goals, based on critical business applications, analyzing dependencies and constraints and then sequencing the remediation actions based on business priorities and available PQC technology.

The IBM Quantum Safe portfolio consists of three solutions:

• Quantum Safe Cryptography Manager: Discover the exposure of assets, cryptographic objects and context in IT operations to plan, execute and manage PQC migration, cryptographic posture and agility.
• Quantum Safe Explorer: Discover cryptographic artifacts, vulnerabilities and crypto-agility anti-patterns in source code. Use insights to remediate and generate CBOMs.
• Quantum Safe Proxy: Seamlessly handle both legacy and post-quantum ready clients and servers by mitigating quantum computing risk and enabling compatibility and smooth interoperability.

IBM Quantum Safe is built to help organizations on the journey toward PQC migration:

• Strategy: Prioritize your high-value business assets, define migration objectives and scope and develop a quantum-safe roadmap that reflects business goals and operational constraints.
• Discovery: Find cryptography across your IT operations and code repositories, including relevant interfaces and dependencies to build a cryptographic inventory and establish the visibility needed for migration planning.
• Assessment: Evaluate your organization’s cryptographic risk, progress toward migration goals and readiness by using technical, operational and business context. These insights help teams prioritize actions across their estate.
• Remediation: Leverage automated workflows to coordinate migration tasks across your teams, systems and owners. Apply mitigation where needed to manage exposure while longer-term remediation work proceeds.
• Continuous governance: Measure your migration progress, policy-driven compliance and cryptographic posture throughout the journey and beyond. Ongoing oversight helps your organization sustain crypto-agility as their environments evolve.

Confidently command your post-quantum cryptography migration.

PQC migration requires a sustained program that connects business priorities with technical execution. IBM Quantum Safe enables organizations to confidently command their post-quantum cryptography migration, providing the technology and expertise necessary to undergo this transformation.