The company is planning to make data-centre devices which will eventually cut down internal costs
Zoho, the Chennai-based company, is planning to expand its niche further by investing and manufacturing hardware devices like data centre-focused hardware devices, medical equipment and augmented reality (AR) equipment.
The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu has expressed his vision for the company’s future. He wants it to develop into a wholistic tech company, that integrates both the software and hardware with a data-centre of its own.
The company began its game when it began investing around $5 million in Voxelgrids for a 25% stake, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanning machine producer based off of Bangaluru in September of 2021. Moreover, the company has also invested in 6 other firms. An interesting name vTitan, a Chennai-based MedTech company also appears in this list.
After a decade’s R&D, the company began shipping medical devices. The company claims that this is just the beginning and that they plan to expand further into hardware manufacturing. Vembu claims that they have shipped about 300-400 pieces of medical equipment so far and that they plan to expand further to take advantage of the current market.
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Plans for Hardware and Data-centres
Zoho also has planned to make data centre devices like servers. The company claims that in the long run, this will save the company a lot of expense on servers. The company estimates that it spends excessively on its data centres and wishes to not just cut down this cost.
The company plans to not just use their data centres for themselves but further adding on, they plan on marketing it out to other companies as well. Vembu has confirmed that a team of about 30-40 people are working on the project for his investment in hardware.
To further diversify, the company has also initiated a research phase to study Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), which are basically integrated circuit devices used for making devices like semiconductor chips.
Zoho Laptops rolling out with their own Operating System (OS)
Vembu has expressed his desire to become a tech giant in India like the Samsung in Korea. With the launch of his Zoho One in 2017, he is one step closer to achieving his goal. This OS for business provides an astounding 45 plus apps to manage all business needs such as sales, marketing, back-office operations and accounting.
Further closing up on his dreams, the firm is planning to manufacture its own Zoho Laptop with the OS developed by the very own company.
R&D on AI and LLMs
It is of no surprise that the tech genius Vembu hasn’t thought of AI. To expand the company’s services further, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) giant recently announced the launch of 13 Generative AI Zoho application extensions and integrations, powered by ChatGPT. With the help of Zoho’s secure cloud, Zoho plans on integrating third-party intelligence with Zia, Zoho’s in-house AI.
To further spice up things, the company revealed they are also building their own Large Language Model (LLM). This special project is directly being overseen by Vembu and is currently in its R&D stage in India.
Vembu has expressed his strong desire for an expansion and he also urges other companies to invest more heavily in their Research and Development for AI in India.
