The server will help the company bring down the total cost of ownership
by 20-30% and power consumption by 12-18%, in turn reducing inference
cost.
Lagos — 11 June 2026—Zoho Corporation [1], a global technology
company and parent company of Zoho and ManageEngine, announced the
launch of Nathu La, a designed-in-house server and a pivotal step in the
company’s journey towards building its full technology stack, from the
hardware layer to software applications.
With Nathu La, Zoho has achieved equivalent performance with 12-18%
lower power consumption and 20-30% lower total cost of ownership (TCO),
thereby reducing inference costs. The Nathu La server, comprising
Intel® Xeon® 6 processors, was developed collaboratively with Intel,
leveraging their enablement capabilities and technical expertise.
“Zoho Corporation has invested in building its own technology stack
from the ground up over the last three decades. The Nathu La server
launch is in line with that goal,” said Kehinde Ogundare, Country
Head, Zoho Nigeria. “With our strategy of using contextual,
right-sized models, running on our own platform, on our own servers, in
our own data centres, we are compounding the benefits accrued from
owning and operating our entire technology stack. This ensures that our
solutions are more sustainable and accessible for businesses. These
long-term R&D investments we are making at every layer of the stack are
aimed at delivering customer value.”
Building the Full Technology Stack
The design philosophy behind Nathu La is rooted in the Open Compute
Project (OCP), emphasising modularity, thermal efficiency, and ease of
maintenance. This enables Zoho’s data centres to significantly reduce
total cost of ownership and power consumption.
Zoho plans to host its applications on the Nathu La server platform,
enabling the company to optimise the full software-hardware stack for
its specific workloads, reduce costs, improve performance, and
strengthen data governance for its global customers. This will also help
bring down inference costs for Zoho’s AI usage.
Developed Hardware Engineering Talent
In 2020, Zoho established a small R&D team in Nagpur, a Tier 2 town in
India, focused on projects such as server design and systems
engineering. Members of the Nathu La R&D team include hires from SETU –
short for Student’s Engagement for Transformative Upskilling – an
initiative designed to build a pipeline of industry-ready engineers,
with a focus on advanced learning in Electronics System Design and
Manufacturing (ESDM).
The initiative directly addresses the growing need for stronger
foundational engineering skills in an era increasingly influenced by
AI-assisted development. By prioritising hands-on innovation and
first-principles problem-solving, SETU helps cultivate deeper research
capabilities, creativity, and applied engineering expertise. To date,
over 300 students have been trained through the programme, some of whom
have joined Zoho.
What’s Inside
The Nathu La server motherboard and chassis platform is the result of
five years of R&D across hardware, firmware, and systems management.
Based on Intel® Xeon® 6 Processors, the server is designed to optimise
performance for virtualisation (VM), High Performance Computing (HPC),
AI inference, and storage applications. This results in improved
performance of Zoho applications for end users.
The server features customised power delivery subsystems, an in-house
DC-SCM (Data Centre Secure Control Module) design, and modular chassis
options compatible with diverse end-user environments, offering
flexibility across deployment types.
All modular components – including the DC-SCM and NIC (Network Interface
Card) – were designed in-house by Zoho’s hardware engineering team and
assembled through electronics manufacturing partners, enabling tighter
integration and quality control across the platform. Over five patents
have been filed covering advanced thermal management and cost-optimised
server architecture designs.
Moving Towards Technological Sovereignty
Nathu La is engineered with hardware-rooted security at every layer of
the stack. The platform’s indigenous IP-driven approach reduces
dependency on external entities for security audits, firmware updates,
and licensing continuity.
The solution aligns with open-source software principles and reflects
Zoho’s broader commitment to building sustainable, secure, and
scalable digital infrastructure. It also supports the growing global
focus on digital sovereignty, local innovation ecosystems, and
high-performance computing capabilities.
Disclaimer: All trademarks, product names, and company names cited
herein are the property of their respective owners.
