Quantum Ready: The Enterprise Guide to Post-Quantum Cryptographic Readiness

Are you ready for the day your encryption fails silently?

Quantum Ready is not just a warning; it’s a field guide for the era of quantum disruption. As quantum computing accelerates toward the threshold where today’s encryption becomes obsolete, organizations must prepare now or risk a catastrophic breakdown in digital trust.

Written by one of the world’s first Field CISOs, this book delivers a strategic, vendor-neutral roadmap for CISOs, security architects, and IT leaders responsible for protecting long-term data and infrastructure. It introduces the Q-Ready Framework, a comprehensive five-phase approach to discovering, prioritizing, migrating, validating, and sustaining quantum-safe cryptography across the enterprise.

In this hands-on guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Identify where vulnerable cryptography lives in your environment
• Evaluate business impact using real-world risk models like Mosca’s equation
• Design migration and testing plans tailored to your infrastructure
• Replace RSA, ECC, and other algorithms with NIST-approved quantum-safe alternatives
• Apply post-quantum cryptography to TLS, VPNs, code signing, and IoT
• Build crypto-agility into your systems, teams, and governance

With practical checklists, actionable advice, and insights from hundreds of field engagements, Quantum Ready goes beyond theory and into the trenches. Whether you’re already on your migration journey or just beginning to assess the threat, this book will prepare you to lead with confidence through one of the biggest shifts in cybersecurity history.

The clock is ticking. Read now, and be the reason your organization is still trusted tomorrow.

Author Walt Powell, an experienced Executive Coach, and CISO Advisor, who has extensive experience working with countless CISOs and developing cybersecurity programs. Walt helped pioneer the role of Field CISO and is a founding member of the Global Security Strategy Office at CDW. Walt now leads a team of Field CISOs, composed entirely of former executives, who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to their clients, underpinned by unique insights gained from contributing to and learning from the strategies of hundreds of CISOs & CIOs across every size of organization and vertical. Walt and his team leverage this wealth of knowledge and experience to provide executive coaching, support, and mentorship, to elevate other CISOs, their programs, and organizations. Sharing lessons and providing strategic guidance that would typically take several careers to acquire.

Prior to his role at CDW, Walt was the owner and vCISO at Left Brain Security, which is now Left Brain Security Media. He has served as an award-winning cybersecurity leader, advisor, architect, pre-sales engineer, and has also served as a professor of networking and security at Wright College. Walt firmly believes in the importance of giving back to the industry, which is why he taught CISSP and CISM boot camps and contributes as a certification exam development committee member for numerous organizations. He holds an impressive array of professional certifications, including CISSP, CISM, CCISO, Carnegie Mellon CISO, the Stanford Advanced Cybersecurity Certificate, and numerous technical and sales certifications from leading cybersecurity firms. Walt also leads a cybersecurity book club, which is being launched as a podcast.

Walt Powell is also the author of The CISO 3.0: A Guide to Next-Generation Cybersecurity Leadership, which is a practical guide for cybersecurity leaders looking to evolve into strategic business partners, offering tools, insights, and real-world examples to align security with enterprise goals and board-level priorities and reflecting Walt’s mission to elevate the role of the CISO beyond technical execution.

A proud Mensa member and futurist, Walt is deeply invested in exploring the implications of emerging technologies on cybersecurity. He actively contributes to the cybersecurity community by writing and speaking at industry conferences such as BSides, CypherCon, and Crowdstrike Fal.con, sharing white papers, and authoring articles on critical security topics. Beyond his professional life, Walt is a former professional musician and multi-instrumentalist who cherishes spending quality time with his children, traveling, and learning new languages.