From if to how: A year of post-quantum reality

For the last 5 years, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) has largely been discussed as a research topic. It was a question of if—if the standards are ratified, if the algorithms perform, if the threat is real.In 2025, Red Hat changed the conversation. We stopped asking “if” and started defining “how.” This past year, we moved PQC out of the laboratory and into the operating system (OS). It wasn’t just about upgrading libraries, it was about pushing the entire modern software supply chain. We found that while the foundation is ready, the ecosystem has a long way to go.Here is the story