New Delhi: No software company can boast of offering its own in-house server platform, but Zoho Corp has made a huge leap in that regard by introducing its own server platform called Nathu La. The new server was designed and developed in India and is expected to help reduce the costs of running artificial intelligence (AI) and data center operations, which are becoming increasingly expensive.
The engineering team at the Chennai-based firm, which makes business software and cloud solutions, said it was based on Intel’s development of the communications industry’s first high-performance embedded servers. The new hardware is Intel Xeon 6 processors and the launch of Nathu La is Zoho’s first official venture into hardware.
It will enable the company to be more flexible and have control of its technology stack by building its own server infrastructure,” says Zoho. In a world rapidly shifting into the AI way of working, companies have committed significant resources and are investing big money in computing power and data centres. Zoho’s plan to build its own servers aims at easing reliance on the big hardware players around the world and to boost efficiency and lower long-term costs.
According to Zoho’s director of AI Research, Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, infrastructure is an intrinsic element of the modern technology world. “When computing power is becoming a critical infrastructure to AI, it makes sense for companies to be more in control of the infrastructure that powers AI.
The company, Zoho, states that the Nathu La server can run as efficiently as other servers on the market, but also saves 12% to 18% more power. The server also estimates that it can cut the TCO in the region of 20%-30%, providing a more economical solution for large-scale AI workloads and cloud services. The company now operates almost 1,000 servers in production and pre-production environments. Once Zoho expands on its hosting capabilities, this figure is expected to increase to over 2000 servers by year’s end.
The launch also signals to the market the intent of Zoho to become a full-fledged technology firm in the future. The company has developed its own software platforms, models, databases, and data centers over the years. The fine integration of a platform of “trusted servers,” which was developed in-house, supports its approach of owning some of the “key” technology layers.
With the rise in demand for AI, Zoho’s acquisition aligns with a broader wave within the tech industry that focuses on the development and investment of in-house infrastructure. The company is not just looking to reduce expenses on Nathu La, but also improve the company’s presence in India’s advanced technology products, which have been designed and built in India.
