Zoho debuts homegrown server ‘Nathu La’ in sovereign tech push

Zoho Corporation has unveiled Nathu La, an indigenously designed server platform developed over five years by its engineering team in Nagpur, marking a significant step in the software company's ambition to build and control its entire technology stack—from hardware and infrastructure to applications and AI.

The company said the new server platform delivers performance comparable to existing systems while reducing power consumption by 12-18% and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO) by 20-30%. The gains are expected to help Zoho reduce the cost of running AI workloads, particularly inference, as enterprises grapple with rising AI infrastructure expenses.

Built around Intel Xeon 6 processors and developed in collaboration with Intel, Nathu La has been designed for high-performance computing (HPC), virtualisation, AI inference and storage-intensive applications. Zoho plans to deploy the servers across its own data centres and host its software applications on the platform.

"We are proud to build a server system that is truly designed in India and taking a step towards creating sovereign technology," said Shailesh Davey, CEO of Zoho Corp. "The development of the Nathu La server reflects our commitment to creating complex technology powered by talent from smaller towns and villages."

The launch comes amid India's broader push for self-reliance in strategic technology infrastructure. While the country's digital economy has expanded rapidly, much of the underlying server technology continues to be sourced from global vendors. Zoho claims Nathu La is among the few server platforms with intellectual property owned entirely in India.

Development work began in 2020 when Zoho established a hardware R&D team in Nagpur. The effort gained momentum following the Indian government's focus on domestic electronics manufacturing and discussions around import restrictions on compute devices, including servers.

According to the company, the server incorporates customised power delivery systems, an in-house Data Centre Secure Control Module (DC-SCM), modular chassis designs and network interface cards developed by Zoho engineers. Manufacturing and assembly have been carried out through Indian electronics manufacturing services (EMS) partners. Zoho has filed more than five patents related to thermal management and server architecture.

The company believes ownership of the full hardware-software stack will become increasingly important in the AI era.

"With AI advancements, inference costs are rising rapidly. With our strategy of using contextual, right-sized models running on our own platform, on our own servers and in our own data centres, we are compounding the benefits accrued from owning and operating our entire technology stack," Davey said.

The server's design follows principles of the Open Compute Project (OCP), focusing on modularity, thermal efficiency and ease of maintenance. Zoho said the platform will enable tighter optimisation between infrastructure and applications, helping improve performance while reducing operating costs.

Beyond infrastructure, Zoho highlighted the role of its Nagpur-based skilling programme, SETU (Student's Engagement for Transformative Upskilling), in building the engineering talent behind the project. The initiative, aligned with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's skill development framework, has trained more than 300 engineering students from central India in electronics system design and manufacturing.

The company said Nathu La has been engineered with hardware-rooted security controls and indigenous intellectual property, reducing dependence on foreign entities for firmware updates, security audits and licensing continuity.

Zoho added that the platform aligns with government initiatives including Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat and the National Supercomputing Mission, positioning it as a potential contributor to India's ambitions around sovereign digital infrastructure and high-performance computing.