The federal government continues its multi-year push toward adopting a Zero Trust posture, driven by Executive Order 14028, OMB M-22-09, and evolving mission requirements. Agencies are expected to improve the seven pillars of controls, strengthen visibility, and protect sensitive data across increasingly distributed, hybrid environments. But as many federal teams have discovered, implementing Zero Trust in environments with legacy or government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) applications often introduces friction. This includes slow performance, user disruption, and administrative burdens that ultimately limit adoption.

As I shared with the Federal Tech Podcast, the Enterprise Browser changes that reality by placing security directly at the point of access, giving agencies a powerful new control surface that modernizes Zero Trust while embracing how users increasingly work today.

The Zero Trust Mandate Is Clear, But the Path Is Complicated

Federal agencies face unprecedented pressure to secure access to SaaS, cloud, legacy apps, and mission systems across a diverse user population.

The combinations are endless. From active to reservist, citizen to foreign national, contractor to employee, personally owned device to government furnished equipment (GFE), from the wired office to the local coffee shop WiFi, the breadth and depth of Zero Trust pillars (user, device, network, data, app) are tested early and often.

In these hybrid environments, network controls often struggle with marrying legacy applications, encrypted traffic, and modern application behavior. Endpoint agents can be difficult to manage across internal devices, and nearly impossible across external devices. Plus, virtualization and VPN tools introduce latency and operational complexity. Even at their best, these tools degrade the user experience, slowing down mission-critical workflows. This friction creates resistance that prevents agencies from realizing the full intent of a Zero Trust approach.

A Modern Policy Execution Point

The Enterprise Browser represents a fundamentally different approach. Instead of retrofitting identity, visibility, or data protection onto networks or endpoints, the browser enforces Zero Trust policy at each moment a user interacts with an app or dataset.

Because the browser is already where federal digital work increasingly occurs, Island transforms it into a secure, identity-anchored control plane that aligns directly with Zero Trust pillars—without requiring workflow changes or complex integrations.

Every action—login, device hygiene, session behavior, data handling, and resource access—is evaluated against policy and device posture in real time. And because Island is built using Chromium – the open-source codebase that builds Chrome and Edge – users receive a familiar experience without training hurdles or performance tradeoffs.

Identity-Driven Access With Consistent, Enforceable Policy

Zero Trust requires continuous verification across every application, every session, and every user action. Island integrates directly with agencies’ existing identity systems to enforce fine-grained controls—evaluating user identity, device posture, session context, and application sensitivity at every step.

Unlike legacy solutions that rely on break and inspect or unpredictable endpoint agents, Island enforces controls within the session itself. This ensures that access restrictions, data handling rules, and behavior governance remain consistent across SaaS, legacy web apps, and sensitive mission systems—whether users are on GFE devices, contractor laptops, remote endpoints, or even BYOD.

Reducing Friction for Users, Contractors, and Mission Partners

Federal teams consistently cite user experience as one of the most significant challenges in Zero Trust adoption. When tools slow workflows or break apps, users find workarounds. While this is great to maintain productivity, it can accidentally introduce new vulnerabilities.

Island solves this by delivering Zero Trust controls transparently inside a familiar browsing experience. No VPN. No VDI. No break and inspect. No heavy endpoint agents. Contractors can securely access federal systems from unmanaged devices without performance penalties or complex onboarding steps. Agencies maintain precise control over copy/paste, downloads, screenshots, data movement, and other last mile considerations, while users simply work as they always have.

From Zero Trust to a Future-Proofed Foundation

Agencies can quickly deploy Island with no network re-architecture, no new virtualization infrastructure, no proprietary clients to manage, while reducing complexity of endpoint configurations.

Most agencies begin with a specific use case or two. Most often, they first protect high-value assets, secure contractor access, and enable enhanced data controls, and then expand as they modernize. This low-friction, incremental approach allows agencies to demonstrate immediate value while modernizing Zero Trust step by step.

Federal security will surely continue to evolve. Agencies therefore need adaptable tools that can secure both modern and legacy applications, support cross-domain workflows, and maintain visibility across distributed workforces.

The Enterprise Browser provides that flexibility. By securing SaaS, cloud-native systems, legacy web apps, and thick-client workflows, Island offers a single, extensible platform for enforcing policy, protecting data, and standardizing access everywhere work happens.

Zero Trust does not have to come at the expense of usability or mission outcomes. By shifting enforcement to the point of access, the Enterprise Browser allows federal agencies to strengthen identity controls, standardize policy, and enhance visibility—while preserving the seamless experience users expect.