Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs enables you to easily run hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, such as the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), that combine classical compute resources with quantum computing devices to optimize the performance of today’s quantum systems. Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs provides three main benefits:

1. Convenience: Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs simplifies setting up and managing your compute environment and keeping it running while your hybrid algorithm runs. You just need to provide your algorithm script and select a quantum device (either a quantum processing unit or a simulator) on which to run. Amazon Braket waits for the target device to become available, spins up the classical resources, runs the workload in pre-built container environments, returns the results to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and releases the compute resources.
2. Metrics: Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs provides on-the-fly insights into running algorithms and delivers customizable algorithm metrics in near real-time to Amazon CloudWatch and the Amazon Braket console so you can track the progress of your algorithms.
3. Performance: Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs provides better performance than running hybrid algorithms from your own environment. While your job is running, it has priority access to the selected target QPU: tasks from your job run ahead of other tasks queued on the device. This results in shorter and more predictable runtimes for hybrid algorithms.

With Hybrid Jobs, you can run algorithms that use both classical and quantum compute resources. These hybrid quantum-classical algorithms can help you optimize the performance of the quantum devices currently available. These algorithms are designed to maximize the benefits and reduce the drawbacks of both types of computational systems and are generally used to find the ground state or global minimum of a particular system.

You can submit Hybrid Jobs to any quantum processing unit (QPU) or quantum simulator. You’ll need to define how the algorithm is implemented by submitting a Python script and perhaps also configuring input data or hyperparameters. This script, along with any input data and hyperparameters, is part of the environment that defines how the Hybrid Job is run. This environment is then placed inside a container, which is accessed by the Hybrid Job once it’s been submitted.

Amazon Braket provides on-demand access to quantum computing devices, including on-demand circuit simulators and different types of QPUs. In Amazon Braket, the atomic request to a device is a task. For gate-based QC devices, this request includes the quantum circuit (including the measurement instructions and number of shots) and other request metadata. For Analog Hamiltonian Simulators, the task contains the physical layout of the quantum register and the time- and space-dependence of the manipulating fields.

With Jupyter notebooks, you can conveniently define, submit, and monitor your tasks from the Amazon Braket Console or using the Amazon Braket SDK. You can build your quantum circuits directly in the SDK. However, for Analog Hamiltonian Simulators, you define the register layout and the controlling fields. After your task is defined, you can choose a device to run it on and submit it to the Amazon Braket API.

Depending on the device you chose, the task is queued until the device becomes available and the task is sent to the QPU or simulator for implementation. Amazon Braket gives you access to different types of QPUs (IonQ, Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), QuEra, Rigetti), three on-demand simulators (SV1, DM1, TN1), two local simulators, and one embedded simulator. To learn more, see Amazon Braket supported devices.

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After processing your task, Amazon Braket returns the results to an Amazon S3 bucket, where the data is stored in your AWS account (4). At the same time, the SDK polls for the results in the background and loads them into the Jupyter Notebook at task completion. You can also view and manage your tasks on the Tasks page in the Amazon Braket console or by using the GetQuantumTask operation of the Amazon Braket API.

Amazon Braket is integrated with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, and Amazon EventBridge for user access management, monitoring and logging as well as for event-based processing

To run a job with Amazon Braket Hybrid Jobs, you first need to define your algorithm. You can define it by writing the algorithm script and, optionally, other dependency files using the Amazon Braket Python SDK or PennyLane. If you want to use other (open source or proprietary) libraries, you can define your own custom container image using Docker, which includes these libraries.

In either case, next you create a job using the Amazon Braket API, where you provide your algorithm script or container, select the target quantum device the job is to use, and then choose from a variety of optional settings. The default values provided for these optional settings work for the majority of use cases. For the target device to run your Hybrid Job, you have a choice between a QPU, an on-demand simulator (such as SV1, DM1 or TN1), or the classical job instance itself.

With an on-demand simulator or QPU, your hybrid jobs container makes API calls to a remote device. With the embedded simulators, the simulator is embedded in the same container as your algorithm script. The lightning simulators from PennyLane are embedded with the default pre-built jobs container for you to use. If you run your code using an embedded PennyLane simulator or a custom simulator, you can specify an instance type as well as how many instances you wish to use.

If your target device is an on-demand or embedded simulator, Amazon Braket starts running the job right away. It spins up the job instance (you can customize the instance type in the API call), runs your algorithm, writes the results to Amazon S3, and releases your resources. This release of resources ensures that you only pay for what you use.

The total number of concurrent jobs per quantum processing unit (QPU) is restricted. Today, only one job can run on a QPU at any given time. Queues are used to control the number of jobs allowed to run so as not to exceed the limit allowed. If your target device is a QPU, your job first enters the job queue of the selected QPU.

Amazon Braket spins up the job instance needed and runs your job on the device. For the duration of your algorithm, your job has priority access, meaning that tasks from your job run ahead of other Braket tasks queued up on the device, provided the job tasks are submitted to the QPU once every few minutes. Once your job is complete, resources are released, meaning you only pay for what you use.

What is the Amazon Hybrid Sales Model?

“Hybrid” refers to selling goods directly to Amazon to be sold on the platform, known as 1st Party Vendor or 1P, whilst at the same time selling goods on Amazon via a partner or vendor, known as 3rd Party Seller or 3P.

In many cases, brands feel they are losing control due to the complexities of Amazon, along with the extensive costs associated with that. Loss of control over pricing can impact pricing on all channels and creates channel conflict.  The hybrid selling model is proven to successfully meet uncertainty and the. most common challenges faced when selling on Amazon:

• Lost control over pricing (which impacts pricing on all channels);
• Stock-outs
• Issues with supply chain or delays to shipping
• Margin pressure, the squeeze can mean no profit on certain product lines

The recent past highlights just how important it is to have inventory management with 100% accuracy. The Hybrid model ensures no delays to your orders or shipping and, more importantly, ensures you have the product in stock to meet customer demand at all times.

The upshot is that you can have a two-pronged approach. With a Hybrid model of 1P and 3P, you can invest in a strategy that you can control, enabling you to target your customer and present your Brand, your way, on Amazon using a 3rd party vendor. This complements your 1P strategy with Amazon meaning you can lessen the dominance of Amazon whilst reaching your customers via 3P. In reality, consumers don’t particularly care as long as they see and buy the Brands they want with ease on Amazon.

What Kind of Job is Hybrid?

Hybrid work is a people-first approach to managing the workforce that drives increased productivity and job satisfaction while addressing the major challenges of remote work, such as isolation and lack of community. A hybrid work model provides employees with greater flexibility and the option to work from home or anywhere they can be productive.

With hybrid work, the workplace is no longer inside the four walls of the corporate office—it’s an ecosystem of employees working from home, in coworking spaces, and the office. Team members can migrate between various locations depending on the work they need to get done.

The hybrid work model can take different forms depending on the organization and the type of work being done.

These are the four most common hybrid work models:

1. Flexible hybrid work model

Employees choose their location and working hours based on their priorities for the day. For example, if they need to spend time focusing on a project, they can choose to work from home or in a coffee shop. If they want a sense of community, need to meet with their team, attend a training session or join a town hall, they can choose to go into the office. Cisco is leveraging this model and offering its employees the option to choose where they work on any given day.

Benefits:

• Offers freedom and flexibility for individuals to determine where and when they work
• Builds a trust-based relationship with employees, which increases loyalty and job satisfaction
• Expands talent pool, leading to more diverse thinking
• Improves the bottom-line due to cost savings on office space and travel

Challenges:

• Difficult for employees to find a suitable day or time for in-person teamwork
• Lack of visibility into how many people are going to the office on any given day and if the building has the capacity to support them

2. Fixed hybrid work model

The organization sets the days and times employees are allowed to work remotely or go into the office. For example, it could be that certain teams go into the office on Mondays and Wednesdays, while others go in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Or an organization could allow everyone to work from home on pre-determined days each week. American Express is an example of an organization that has adopted a fixed hybrid work model.

Benefits:

• Increases opportunity for in-person collaboration and team building
• Gives employees the option to schedule appointments or run quick errands on certain days of the week
• Provides the ability to easily forecast office capacity

Challenges:

• Lack of individual choice, which could lead to a loss of productivity if employees aren’t in the optimal setting for the work that needs to be done
• Inability to reduce office space

3. Office-first hybrid work model

Employees are expected to be on-site but have the flexibility to choose a few days a week to work remotely. Google plans to adopt this type of model where employees work in the office three days a week but have the option to choose two days for working remotely.

Benefits:

• Allows flexibility and individual choice
• Helps maintain company culture and community

Challenges:

• Lack of visibility for employees around who will be in the office and when
• Inability to accurately forecast how many employees will be in the office on a given day

4. Remote-first hybrid work model

Employees work remotely most of the time with occasional visits to coworking spaces or the office for team building, collaboration, and training. In this model, the company may not have an office space and instead relies on team members in the same area to get together when they see fit. Twitter adopted this remote-first model and will allow all employees to work from home.

Benefits:

• Increases productivity and job satisfaction for employees who want to work remotely most of the time
• Provides the ability to reduce costs by reducing or eliminating office space

Challenges:

• Potential for employees to feel isolated
• Increased challenges maintaining the company culture and community

They are a good thing! While many expect employee engagement to drop if employees aren’t going into the workplace every day, research shows that hybrid and remote work can improve employee engagement. In a recent survey, 79% of knowledge workers indicated that their engagement level has stayed the same or improved since they began working remotely.