In the world we live in, software is omnipresent. Both in business and in private life, software is increasingly decisive. Whatever we do, there is a software solution to efficiently solve any need, be it business, culture, entertainment, sports, communications, meteorology, transportation, or … whatever.

I think these data are worth illustrating what this omnipresence means: it is estimated that the value of software installed on PCs in the world exceeds 128 billion US dollars1 and that currently mobile device users can choose from more than 4.83 million of applications for their mobiles (2.87 million in Google Play and 1.96 million in the AAP Store)2.

And all that software is, using the terminology that emerged from the appearance of quantum software, classical.

Contrary to what one might think with the news of quantum supremacy, for multiple reasons this huge stock of applications does not lose its usefulness with the appearance of quantum computing and, much less, humanity could afford to destroy the billions of euros invested in the classic software running in the world as long as it works efficiently, and therefore maintains its functional validity and its market value.

Of course, classical software cannot solve the same problems that quantum software solves (and especially will solve), but reality is pragmatic and each of them does not necessarily negate the other. On the contrary, both types of software, well integrated, can coexist and complement each other, giving rise to new developments, new solutions, new services or, in other words, new businesses. The projection in time of these integrations is long, so much so that they will be necessary even when there are portable quantum computers and there is enough commercial quantum software to replace some of the classical solutions that we currently know.

For these reasons, an important part of the new software business before us is hybrid and to develop it, to exploit it successfully, it will be necessary to use software solutions specially designed to facilitate the integration of these two worlds of software. These business opportunities are not only for the future, they are already before us and, therefore, it is the opportune moment to learn about the trends of hybrid solutions.

Such is the case of QPath, an ecosystem of tools, services and processes that enables quantum/classical hybrid information systems, which makes it possible the execution of quantum process units transparently for the environment in which they are executed.

As a platform designed to facilitate the integration of hybrid software systems, the architecture and functionalities of QPath, an quantum software development and lifecycle application platform, have been defined in such a way that:

•  This hybrid (classical/quantum) computing platform supports the life cycle and engineering of quantum software
• Has an hybrid model for the construction of services that abstract quantum technology without having to worry directly about the manufacturers’ platforms and their requirements
• Makes it easy for classic development teams to manage hybrid software projects life cycle
• Contains set of metalanguages, APIs and QPath´s integration point, allowing access to virtually every feature and behavior of the platform to facilitate the dynamic integration of classical applications with quantum ones.
• The modular design supports the integration of third-party solutions through pipelines
  Supports, by design, adding future quantum technologies effortless as new layers, improving your quantum solutions
• Can be deployed in multiple contexts: cloud, on-premise or hybrid.

QPath has been designed and developed according to the principles and commitments of Talavera Manifesto on the field of software engineering and quantum programming and therefore considers the evolution of quantum software and embraces the coexistence of classical and quantum computing.

QPath is a platform designed to support the integration of hybrid classical/quantum software and therefore contains the necessary tools to facilitate something as complex as dynamically integrating classical software with quantum computing. With QPath (conditioned by the state of the art of quantum computing at all times), from an application of the real information systems of companies and institutions (with the specific developments required both in classical applications and in the quantum algorithm) it is possible to make queries to the quantum environment and integrate their results to the classical application that exploits them and make them available to its users.

It is clear that this type of integration will be essential for the business and vital activity of companies and institutions. Many of these integrations will be crucial to process information, optimize and simulate complex processes impossible to execute in reasonable times in classical computers. The need is here, the business will solve it with enabling solutions and, therefore, QPath is a (very) useful platform to accelerate the emerging quantum software business.

^{1, 2}: Statista, https://www.statista.com