Zoho Unleashes Nathu La Server Platform, Targeting Massive Cut in AI and Data Centre Infrastructure Costs

Zoho Unleashes Nathu La Server Platform, Targeting Massive Cut in AI and Data Centre Infrastructure Costs​

Zoho Corporation has executed a pivotal shift into hardware with the launch of Nathu La, an India-designed server platform. This move signifies its first official entry into the hardware manufacturing space. The company stated that this infrastructure is essential for reducing data centre and artificial intelligence (AI) costs while strengthening Zoho's control over its entire technology stack.

The Chennai-headquartered software firm, which offers products under the Zoho and ManageEngine brands, designed Nathu La using its engineering team in Nagpur. The platform was developed in collaboration with Intel, utilizing Intel Xeon 6 processors for compute power.

Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at Zoho Corp, highlighted the necessity of this move, stating that infrastructure has become foundational. He emphasized that if compute becomes foundational to their business, then they must own it.

Reducing Costs and Optimizing Performance​

Nathu La is engineered to deliver equivalent performance while providing significant operational efficiencies. The server platform reduces power consumption by 12-18 percent. Furthermore, it lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) for businesses by 20-30 percent.

Zoho plans to deploy these proprietary servers within its own global data centres. These data centres host applications utilized by over 150 million users worldwide. The company believes these savings are increasingly critical as AI workloads surge infrastructure and inference costs.

Owning the hardware stack allows Zoho to optimize performance specifically for its applications. This internal control also reduces dependence on major overseas server vendors, including Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo.

A Strategy of Internal Use and Dogfooding​

Unlike traditional external server vendors, Zoho is not planning to commercialize Nathu La at this stage. The platform was launched primarily for internal consumption within Zoho’s own data centres. Ramamoorthy confirmed that they are "dogfooding" the technology, operating on the principle that "Zoho runs on Zoho."

The company has been rigorously testing Nathu La for nearly a year and has already commenced limited production deployments. Currently, a few hundred Nathu La servers are deployed against a fleet of over 10,000 servers across more than 16 global data centres.

Looking forward, Zoho is targeting close to 1,000 such servers in pre-production and production globally. The company expects deployment numbers to reach around 2,000 by the conclusion of this year.

Building Self-Reliance in Nagpur​

The development journey for Nathu La began in 2020 at Zoho's centre in Nagpur. This location choice was deliberate, situated away from traditional Indian hardware hubs like Bengaluru and Chennai. Mangesh Sadafale, Head of Hardware Development at Zoho, noted the initial challenge of limited experienced local hardware talent.

To overcome this gap, Zoho created the SETU programme (Student Engagement for Transformative Upskilling). This initiative works with engineering students starting from their fifth semester onward. The majority of the Nagpur hardware team today consists of engineers hired through this internal program.

The platform is wholly designed and built in Nagpur by individuals who started at Zoho as freshers. While global suppliers remain necessary for components like processors and memory, Ramamoorthy affirmed that the overarching goal remains greater technological self-reliance.