Platform overviewCryptographic inventoryCBOMCrypto agilityPQC migrationCI drift control
All solutionsFinancial servicesGovernmentHealthcareSoftware companies
SecurityPricing
GuidesPQC migration guideNIST PQC standardsCryptographic inventoryCompareIntegrations
Start a scanSee the platformSign in

PQC migration guide

Post-quantum cryptography migration: an operating roadmap

Post-quantum migration is a multi-year systems-change program. The durable path begins with visibility and ends with verified, repeatable cryptographic agility—not a one-time algorithm swap.

Start a scan See pricing

Decision brief

Primary query
post quantum cryptography migration
Best for
Teams that need reviewable cryptographic evidence, ownership, and continuous migration control.
Safety boundary
Evidence supports decisions; it is not proof of implementation safety or compliance.

NIST finalized FIPS 203, 204, and 205 in 2024 and advises organizations to begin migration. That direction does not remove implementation decisions. Teams must discover where quantum-vulnerable public-key cryptography is used, understand protocol and product support, prioritize long-lived sensitive data, engage vendors, test standardized implementations, and coordinate change across producers and consumers.

Use migration waves rather than a single deadline. Group systems by shared libraries, protocols, certificate infrastructure, business service, vendor, or deployment environment. Define entry criteria, interoperability cases, performance limits, fallback behavior, key and artifact handling, rollout metrics, and exit evidence for each wave. Maintain classical and hybrid approaches only where architecture and policy justify them.

Capabilities

What the operating model needs to do

01

Inventory first

Locate quantum-vulnerable algorithms and connect them to systems, data, owners, and dependencies.

02

Prioritize by consequence

Consider data lifetime, exposure, criticality, replacement lead time, and vendor control.

03

Test interoperability

Validate actual products, protocols, versions, parameters, performance, and failure behavior.

04

Prevent regression

Update architecture, approved libraries, policy, procurement, and CI after migration.

Workflow

A repeatable path to evidence

Use explicit scope, accountable decisions, and verification gates. Keep unknowns visible so progress is not manufactured by narrowing the denominator.

  1. 1

    Mobilize

    Set governance, scope, standards watch, evidence model, owners, and reporting boundaries.

  2. 2

    Discover and triage

    Build the inventory, expose unknowns, and rank systems into migration cohorts.

  3. 3

    Pilot

    Test representative low-risk systems and shared platforms before broad rollout.

  4. 4

    Scale and verify

    Migrate in waves, confirm production state, close old paths, and monitor drift.

Expected deliverables

Artifacts the next team can inspect

  • PQC program charter
  • Cryptographic inventory and coverage
  • Prioritized migration cohorts
  • Interoperability and performance evidence
  • Production verification and regression controls

Buyer checklist

Questions for a proof of value

  1. 01Does the roadmap connect standards to actual system dependencies?
  2. 02Are vendor products and procurement included?
  3. 03Can tests be reproduced for each protocol and implementation?
  4. 04Does closure require production verification?
  5. 05How will the organization remain agile after the first migration?

Limits and cautions

What this page does not promise

  • Do not forecast a precise quantum break date as fact.
  • Standardized algorithms still require correct, supported implementations.
  • Migration can introduce availability and interoperability risk if rushed.

Primary sources

Continue evaluating

Related decision pages

CNSA 2.0 guide

CNSA 2.0 planning: inventory, policy, migration evidence, and limits

Use current NSA sources to plan CNSA 2.0-related inventory and migration work while keeping applicability, implementation validation, and compliance decisions with the proper authority.

Read page

NIST PQC standards guide

NIST post-quantum cryptography standards: what migration teams need to track

A current, source-led guide to FIPS 203, FIPS 204, FIPS 205, ongoing NIST work, inventory, implementation testing, and migration governance.

Read page

Quantum security buyer guide

Quantum security companies: how to evaluate the post-quantum market

A current buyer framework for cryptographic inventory, posture management, PQC migration, runtime remediation, PKI and CLM, implementations, and quantum-safe networking vendors.

Read page

Cryptographic inventory software

A cryptographic inventory your engineering teams can keep current

Discover cryptographic assets in source, dependencies, configuration, containers, and authorized TLS endpoints. Preserve evidence, ownership, and change history in one inventory.

Read page
Local-first discovery

Start with evidence from one representative repository

Run a scoped scan, inspect every result, export the CBOM, and decide whether the evidence is strong enough to support your operating model.

Create a workspace