Zoho upgrades platform to enhance applications devt.

Zoho Corporation says it has upgraded its catalyst cloud platform with new AI-powered tools to help developers turn computer-generated code into working applications more easily.
 

The Country Head, Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, made known in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.
 
Ogundare said that the new tools would simplify the process of building, testing and launching applications, while reducing the time and effort developers spend managing technology.
 
He said that AI coding tools had made it faster to create applications, but getting such applications ready for real-world use remained challenging.
 
According to him, catalyst is designed to reduce such challenges by providing the tools and infrastructure to build, launch and expand applications on one platform.
 
He said that developers could use AI coding assistants, including Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex, while Catalyst handled much of the underlying technology needed to run their applications.
 
“Developers still spend significant time managing infrastructure and bringing together separate cloud services,” Ogundare said.
 
He said one of the new features, catalyst agent skills, gave AI assistants the information needed to work correctly with the platform and follow recommended development procedures.
 
The country head said that another feature, a non-interactive command-line tool, allowed AI assistants to carry out several development tasks without requiring developers to provide instructions at every stage.
 
He said that its Model Context Protocol (MCP) support would also allow developers to perform tasks such as creating database tables directly from their usual coding environments.
 
Ogundare said that the new features would help developers move more quickly from writing code to testing and launching applications, while reducing the need to use several separate cloud services.
 
He, however, said that human control would remain part of the process, with developers required to manually move applications from testing environments into production.
 
Ogundare said that developers would also have access to records showing actions taken by AI assistants, while changes could be tracked, reversed and attributed to specific users.
 
He also said that catalyst would be completely free for students developing non-commercial applications, without requiring subscriptions or credit cards.
 
Ogundare said that students would have access to tools for hosting applications, managing databases and experimenting with AI, helping them gain practical experience beyond learning how to write code.
 
He said that catalyst also provides a free monthly option for developers, as well as N192,500 in free credits for users who want to explore more of the platform over six months.
 
Ogundare said that the platform was available under a pay-as-you-go model, with spending controls designed to help users monitor and manage their costs.
 
He said that it had also made some of Catalyst’s development tools available as open-source projects, allowing developers to inspect, improve and contribute to them.
 
Ogundare said that applications built on Catalyst ran on Zoho’s own data centres and benefit from security measures including protection against cyberattacks and regular security testing.
 
He said that Zoho, which operated more than 60 business applications, had more than 150 million users worldwide that relied on its products.