Nine years ago, Apple Inc. launched the iPhone App Store, despite the misgivings of none other than co-founder Steve Jobs. The tech legend originally wanted new software applications developed inside the web browser over concerns about security and bugs. By the first weekend after the App Store launched, users had already downloaded more than 10 million apps, and the company never looked back.

There have been more than 180 billion downloads from Apple’s App Store since then, and now a French startup is borrowing the App Store model by enabling its partners to develop and sell field programmable gate array, or FPGA, accelerated applications among multiple cloud providers.

“Most of the cloud end users are not FPGA experts, so they couldn’t care less if it’s FPGA or something else. What they really want is the acceleration benefit,” said Stephane Monboisset (pictured), director of marketing and business development at Accelize.

Monboisset stopped by theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) during the recent Supercomputing event in Denver, Colorado. They discussed the App Store model for FPGA application delivery and how Accelize is building an ecosystem of tools and partners to implement the solution. (* Disclosure below.)

Accelize partners with AWS and OVH

Positioning itself at the forefront of acceleration as a service, Accelize recently announced a partnership with cloud service provider OVH SAS to offer ready-to-use software integrated with the Intel FPGA-based acceleration platform. The company announced a similar partnership with Amazon Web Services Inc. earlier this year.

“Our objective is to provide a marketplace of accelerators that can be used as a service without even thinking that it’s an FPGA in the background,” Monboisset explained. “The ecosystem is an essential part of the offering. We cannot be an expert in every single domain.”

Accelize’s strategy is to create a comprehensive platform where solutions can be built and deployed on the cloud inexpensively. One tool the company created for this is QuickPlay, a framework for intellectual property development and FPGA applications. Accelize’s QuickStore is the App Store-like marketplace where developers can purchase ready-to-use FPGA accelerators.

It’s a model that will require a healthy, agile ecosystem of cloud partners and interested developers who will embrace FPGA acceleration services. “Our main goal right now is to evangelize and show [developers] how much money they can make and how they can serve this market of FPGA acceleration as a service,” Monboisset concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Supercomputing 2017 conference. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Super Computing 2017 conference. Neither Intel, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE