The browser is the most-used application in the enterprise, yet it hasn’t meaningfully evolved in decades. Consumer browsers have been optimized for speed, search, and advertising. But surprisingly little has been done in the browser to improve the lives of knowledge workers or to protect the enterprises that depend on them.
That gap has forced IT and security teams to layer a patchwork of point solutions around the browser: VDI for secure access, VPNs for tunneling traffic, secure web gateways for filtering, DLP for data protection, and CASB for SaaS control. Each tool solves a narrow problem. Together, they lead to added complexity, cost, and friction.
Island’s founders, Mike Fey (former Symantec President, McAfee CTO) and Dan Amiga (founder of Fireglass, acquired by Symantec), saw a different path. If work happens in the browser, why not make the browser itself the enterprise control plane — embedding security, governance, and productivity directly into the environment where people actually work?
The Island Enterprise Browser looks and feels like Chrome: fast, familiar, frictionless. But under the hood, it is a fully governed workspace. Every session is trusted, every action is visible, and every policy is enforced natively. Screenshots can be blocked, downloads restricted, copy-paste controlled down to the field level. Device posture can be checked before granting access. Private apps can be reached without a VPN. And AI usage can be monitored and governed in real time.
These controls follow the user, wherever they log on. Whether someone signs in from a corporate laptop, a personal tablet, or a kiosk across the globe, the session is protected. There are no plugins to manage, no proxies to maintain, and no performance lag to troubleshoot.
By building these controls into the browser itself, Island collapses entire layers of the security stack. This enables customers to retire or reduce spend on VDI, VPNs, password managers, and more, all while giving employees a faster, simpler experience.
Why we invested
When we met Island in early 2023, we quickly realized that it was more than just another security product. Although the enterprise browser market was still in its infancy, customers were strikingly enthusiastic. CISOs talked about retiring legacy systems. CIOs described faster rollouts and simpler architectures. IT teams saw a path to “doing more with less” — fewer tools, yet better control.
The feedback we heard in the field made that conviction impossible to ignore. At one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the U.S., clinicians could connect in seconds instead of waiting 10 to 15 minutes to log into Citrix. Island enabled a public global consumer goods company to secure BYOD and contractor access, saving millions while enforcing policy at scale. And at one of the world’s largest banks, Island has improved employee productivity, while enhancing IT visibility and helping security teams prevent data leaks. One Fortune 100 executive told us they came to Island for cost savings, but what surprised them was the sheer volume of positive user feedback. That response is why these deployments aren’t proofs of concept. They’re enterprise-wide rollouts in some of the most demanding IT environments in the world. And they tend to be unusually durable: the first sale often requires CIO, CISO, and end user alignment, a foundation that can help create long-term staying power.
The market is moving
The shift to the enterprise browser is already underway. Gartner predicts that by 2030 enterprise browsers will be the core platform for delivering workforce productivity and security software across devices. We believe that timeline could accelerate. The drivers are clear:
- Hybrid work is permanent. Secure access from any device, anywhere, is a baseline expectation.
- AI is everywhere. Organizations need real-time governance for tools that didn’t exist two years ago.
- Point solution sprawl is unsustainable. Security stacks are bloated and budgets are under pressure.
The browser is the logical consolidation point. It’s the one application that every employee touches, every day. Island’s advantage is that it saw this shift first and so has already built the product depth, design partnerships, and the go-to-market engine to meet the moment.
