June 11, 2026 – the Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), the global non-profit organization bringing hyperscale innovations to all and Numana, a non-profit organization that acts as a Macro-accelerator catalyst for technological ecosystems today announced as a part of their collaborations, that the quantum communication testbed, called Kirq situated in the province of Quebec within Canada, is now available for the public to propose project trials as an OCP Experience Center. Kirq includes three-nodes located in Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Montreal, and simulates real-world conditions and networks, so new quantum-safe innovations can be tested. Using Kirq for interoperability testing validates network architectures for deploying quantum-resilient infrastructure, potentially protecting networks used by banks, hospitals and governments.
“We are very pleased to establish an alliance with Numana, as an example of how the OCP Community can make sure innovations in regions that are investing in emerging technologies such as Canada are included with the OCP Community for the benefit of all. In addition, the OCP’s mission is to also help companies promote their products globally, help Canadian vendors work with the right standards that are trusted by the data center ecosystem, which can be a large benefit to Canadian technology companies,” said George Tchaparian, CEO at the Open Compute Project Foundation. “Quantum technology is just one example where the investment within Canada is important, and can be visible globally through the OCP community.”
“Partnering with Numana will allow the OCP Community to advance its Future Technologies Initiative (FTI) work on how quantum technologies fit into today’s AI data centers. It has become clear over the previous two years that quantum technologies will not be stand-alone, but must be integrated into existing production data centers. For this to be successful the quantum and data center provider communities will need to collaborate to develop best practices on both data center facilities and quantum equipment design. The OCP is the natural place for this to happen as the data center builders are already part of our Community,” said Cliff Grossner, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer at the Open Compute Project Foundation. “In fact, the OCP FTI Community has made an important first step with the recent release of a White Paper developed in collaboration with many quantum vendors and data center operators, Integrating Quantum Processing Units into Data Center Infrastructure.”
The Kirq quantum communication testbed provides a multi-hub quantum communication configuration. These facilities include eight (8) technical equipment rooms with a total capacity of twenty (20) racks, more than 240 km of dedicated dark Fiber Optic links that can be configured in various network topologies, and more than 90 classical and quantum systems that can be used by testbed end-users in their project trials.
“Partnering with the OCP will allow Numana to make available to the international community quantum communication test facilities developed within Canada. It is clear the world will need to implement quantum-safe networks and quantum-safe technologies to reduce risks. We can only solve the quantum safe encryption problem if we all collaborate,” said Bernard Duval, CEO, Numana. “We have to act now, and that’s where Kirq comes in – testing how well new security approaches can be integrated into long-lived digital systems, ensuring Canadian innovation is aligned with international standards, and how it will stand up to quantum-powered cyberattacks.”
“The time to act is now, to address the emerging quantum threat. We have been moving from a phase where quantum technology was mostly in the hands of the scientists to a market with broader adoption. We can already see a timeline where quantum technologies will be moving from select deployments to integration with AI data centers,” said Jake Silverman Equity Research Analyst – Semiconductors at Bloomberg Intelligence. “International collaborations will be necessary to reduce the security risks from quantum technologies, and this partnership between Numana and the OCP has the potential to positively impact this developing market.”
About Numana
Founded in 2007, Numana is a non-profit organization that acts as a Macro-accelerator for technological ecosystems. Numana brings together private, public, and institutional stakeholders around common goals and coordinated actions to create value for the technology industry and all of Canada. Visit https://numana.tech/en/ to learn more
About OCP
The Open Compute Project (OCP) brings at-scale innovations and hyperscaler best practices to all, spanning technology domains from the data center to the edge, and the technology stack from silicon, to systems, to site facilities and services. The international OCP Community is made up of organizations and people from hyperscale, neocloud and cloud data center operators, communications providers, colocation providers, diverse enterprises, and technology providers. With The OCP Tenets of Openness, Impact, Efficiency, Scale and Sustainability, the OCP Foundation engages with industry ecosystems, our growing membership, and educates thousands of engineers and industry leaders, every year. Across many projects and initiatives, the OCP Foundation and its Community are meeting the AI Data Center market evolution today and shaping the future. Learn more at: www.opencompute.org.
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Media Contacts
Dirk Van Slyke
Open Compute Project Foundation
dirkv@opencompute.org
Florian Saugues
Numana
fsaugues@numana.tech
