Introduction

There is a persistent and understandable temptation to view post-quantum cryptography as a technical problem with a technical solution. New algorithms have been standardised by NIST. Vendors are updating their products. The path forward appears straightforward: swap the old algorithms for the new ones and the job is done.

This framing is appealing because it is simple. It suggests a bounded, manageable project with a clear end point. Unfortunately, it is also fundamentally misleading. The transition to quantum-resistant cryptography is not a like-for-like replacement. It is one of the most complex enterprise transformations most organisations will undertake in the coming decade, and treating it as anything less risks repeating the costly mistakes that have characterised previous technology transitions.

For C-suite leaders, board members and senior risk owners, understanding why PQC is a business transformation — not a technical upgrade — is essential to ensuring that the organisation’s response is properly scoped, funded and governed.

The Invisible Dependency

To appreciate the scale of the PQC challenge, it helps to understand just how deeply cryptography is embedded in modern enterprise IT. PKI underpins almost every digital interaction across your organisation — often entirely invisibly.

Every application call to a network or cloud service relies on certificates. Every device authentication uses cryptographic protocols. Every encrypted data transfer — whether between users, services or system components — depends on the cryptographic algorithms that PQC will eventually replace. Even the communication between components inside your corporate network, between microservices, between containers, between an application and its database, relies on certificates and cryptographic trust.

The same is true for the integration points between systems across your wider IT estate. APIs, middleware, data feeds, reporting pipelines, automation workflows and third-party service connections all depend on cryptographic protocols to establish identity, protect data in transit and ensure the integrity of the information being exchanged.

All of this activity — every handshake, every signed token, every encrypted payload — will eventually need to be upgraded to quantum-resilient algorithms. The scale of this underlying dependency is precisely what makes the PQC transition an enterprise transformation rather than a technical project.

Why Vendors Cannot Lead This Transformation for You

Vendors play an important role in the PQC transition. They provide the platforms, tools and libraries that organisations will use to implement quantum-resistant algorithms. Without vendor investment in PQC-capable products, the transition simply would not be possible.

But there is a critical limitation to what vendors can deliver. They can provide platforms that support PQC algorithms. They cannot understand your business priorities, your critical systems, your data flows, your sensitive information or the value those datasets hold in enabling your business processes.

This is not a criticism of vendors. It is a statement of scope. A vendor’s expertise lies in their technology. Your expertise lies in your business. The PQC transition sits at the intersection of both, and it must be led from the business side with technical implementation following strategic direction — not the other way around.

Organisations that allow the PQC transition to be vendor-led risk optimising for the technology rather than for the business. They may end up with PQC-capable infrastructure that is not aligned to their risk priorities, not integrated with their governance frameworks and not sequenced in a way that reflects their operational realities. This is the pattern we have seen repeatedly in previous technology transitions, and it is the pattern that PQC must break.

The Business Questions Only You Can Answer

The risk posed by quantum computing will vary by organisation, but it is a risk that must be understood, assessed and quantified in business terms. There are questions at the heart of the PQC transition that only the business can answer.

How does data flow through your organisation, and where is it most sensitive? Which systems are most critical to your operations, and what would the impact be if their cryptographic protections were compromised? How long does your information retain its value — months, years or decades? Which third-party relationships and supply chain integrations depend on cryptographic trust? Where does cryptography underpin regulatory compliance obligations?

These are not technical questions. They are business strategy, risk management and governance questions that require input from across the organisation — from the CISO and CTO, certainly, but also from operational leaders, data owners, compliance teams and the board itself.

Without clear answers to these questions, any technical PQC implementation is operating in the dark. It may address the right systems or it may not. It may protect the most sensitive data first or it may not. It may align with the organisation’s investment cycles and operational constraints or it may not. The only way to ensure that the transition is well-targeted is to ground it in a thorough understanding of the business context.

This Is Not a Cliff-Edge Problem

One of the most important messages for boards and senior leaders is that the PQC transition does not need to be completed immediately or within a single investment cycle. This is not a cliff-edge problem with a hard deadline after which everything fails.

A full PQC transition will likely span multiple investment cycles and programmes. The work can — and should — be phased, with priorities determined by risk assessment and business criticality. Organisations have a window to assess their exposure, build a plan and execute a well-governed transition at a pace that reflects their specific circumstances.

This is an important counterpoint to the urgency messaging that dominates much of the vendor and media discourse around PQC. While the threat is real and the planning should begin now, the pandemic demonstrated that organisations can mobilise at exceptional speed when confronted with a clear, immediate trigger. The arrival of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer will be another such trigger, and organisations that have invested in planning, governance and foundational readiness will be well positioned to accelerate when the moment arrives.

The risk is not that organisations will have too little time to act. The risk is that they will arrive at the moment of acceleration without the foundational understanding needed to act effectively — without knowing where their cryptography is, what their data priorities are, or how their technology estate needs to evolve. That is the gap that planning today is designed to close.

Cryptographic Agility as the Strategic Outcome

Transitioning to PQC-resistant algorithms is not a one-off event. It also introduces an ongoing requirement to adopt new algorithms over time. Quantum computing will continue to advance, and even today’s quantum-resistant algorithms may eventually be challenged. The history of cryptography is a history of algorithms being superseded, and there is no reason to expect this pattern to change.

As a result, cryptographic agility — the ability to adopt new algorithms quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption — must be a core outcome of any PQC transformation strategy. This means designing architectures that can adapt, not just architectures that support today’s new standards. It means centralising cryptographic management so that algorithm changes can be implemented at the service layer rather than requiring changes to every consuming application. It means automating certificate lifecycles so that transitions can be executed at scale. And it means embedding cryptographic governance into procurement and architecture review processes so that agility is maintained over time.

An organisation that completes a PQC migration but does not achieve cryptographic agility will find itself back at the starting line when the next algorithm change is required. The transformation is only successful if it delivers a lasting capability, not just a one-time upgrade.

The Governance Imperative

Because PQC is a business transformation, it requires business-level governance. This means visibility at board level, clear risk ownership, defined investment horizons and regular reporting on progress and residual risk.

The risks and opportunities introduced by quantum computing represent one of the most significant technological shifts in generations. They affect data protection, operational continuity, regulatory compliance, supply chain security and, for some organisations, national security. These are not risks that can be managed solely within a technology function. They must be visible and actively governed at the highest levels of the organisation.

For CISOs, this governance imperative also extends inward. The sensitive cryptographic data generated during the PQC transition — inventories, discovery findings, migration roadmaps and risk assessments — must itself be protected as a high-value asset. Ensuring that PQC adoption decisions are informed, trustworthy and resilient depends on the security of the information that underpins them.

How Unsung Can Help

Unsung helps organisations approach PQC as the enterprise transformation it demands. We work with C-suite leaders, CISOs and technology teams to develop strategies that are grounded in business risk, aligned to investment cycles and designed to deliver lasting cryptographic agility.

Our role is to bridge the gap between the technical complexity of PQC and the strategic clarity that boards and senior leaders need. We provide vendor-neutral guidance that ensures the transition is led by your business priorities, governed at the right level and executed in a way that builds enduring capability — not just short-term compliance.

If your organisation is beginning to recognise that PQC is more than a technical upgrade, we would welcome the opportunity to help shape your approach. The conversation starts with your business, not with algorithms.

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Want to explore this topic further?

This blog is part of a series drawn from our strategic whitepaper, Post-Quantum Cryptography: A Strategic Whitepaper for the C-Suite. It provides vendor-neutral, business-focused guidance on navigating the quantum era — covering the threats already in play, lessons from previous hype cycles, and practical steps your organisation can take today. Download your copy here: https://2f4v3l.share-eu1.hsforms.com/20qJjHSynQkuJKhI_xq9Msg