Zoho has unveiled its first in-house server platform, "Nathu La", developed with Intel to power AI and cloud workloads while reducing infrastructure costs. Founder Sridhar Vembu also cautioned students against overreliance on AI, warning it can weaken critical thinking and become a "crutch"
Zoho goes beyond software and has launched "Nathu La", its first-ever home server platform, to reduce rising costs of AI infrastructure and data centre operations.
Sridhar Vembu, founder and former CEO of Zoho, who announced the news alongside, warned the students against becoming overly dependent on AI tools.
Zoho decided to enter the hardware space with the launch of its first-ever home server platform, Nathu La, designed to power AI and cloud workloads.
Zoho claims that this move will reduce infrastructure costs. The move also supports improving energy efficiency and provides greater control over the technology stack that supports its products.
Nathu La is developed by Zoho's engineering team in Nagpur, in collaboration with Intel. Nathu La will deploy Intel Xeon 6 processors across the company's data centres.
Zoho claims the new hardware platform delivers similar performance while helping reduce power consumption by 12-18 per cent and lowering total ownership costs by 20-30 per cent. The launch comes as technology companies face rising expenses tied to AI infrastructure and computing power.
Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at Zoho Corp, said that Hardware is one area where we have traditionally relied on global OEMs. As infrastructure and compute become foundational, we should own it.
He also mentioned that, unlike traditional server manufacturers, Zoho does not intend to sell Nathu La for commercial use. The company stated that the platform was primarily designed for internal purposes and is currently being implemented across specific workloads.
"We have initiated a server platform primarily for internal use, and we are currently testing it ourselves. "Zoho runs on Zoho," stated Ramamoorthy.
Zoho serves over 150 million users worldwide and operates more than 16 data centres. The company indicated that rising AI-related expenses significantly influenced its decision to develop its own server platform.
Currently, Zoho has several hundred Nathu La servers integrated into its infrastructure and anticipates reaching approximately 2,000 deployments by the end of this year.
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Apart from announcing the launch, Sridhar Vembu also warned the students about their limits in depending on AI. He says that the overuse of AI could weaken students' critical thinking skills. Citing research, he recently asserted on X that "high school students don't learn mathematics better with AI; they just learn to rely too much on AI. AI is not a training wheel; it becomes a crutch.
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