In this exclusive VMblog Q&A, Jason Trunk, Field CTO at Island, discusses how the company's pioneering Enterprise Browser is transforming end-user computing ahead of the IGEL Now & Next 2025 event.

Founded five years ago by industry veterans, Island has developed a simplified enterprise workspace that integrates advanced security features and productivity tools directly into the browser, eliminating the need for multiple security layers while providing organizations with unprecedented control over browser activity. As enterprises increasingly deliver applications through browsers, Island partners with IGEL to create a more secure, efficient, and user-friendly digital workspace alternative to traditional VDI solutions.

VMblog: Tell us a little bit about your company.

Jason Trunk:  Founded five years ago by a team of industry veterans, Island pioneered the Enterprise Browser, a simplified enterprise workspace that benefits CIOs, CISOs, and end users. Island serves a distinguished roster of globally recognized brands across diverse industries, including financial services, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, technology and aviation.

VMblog:  Talk about your technology. What problems do you solve?  And how are you considered unique?

Trunk:  Island's Enterprise Browser speeds and secures work by integrating advanced security features and productivity tools directly into the browser, ensuring a seamless, protected and efficient user experience without the need for additional layers of security. By embedding the core IT, security and productivity needs into the browser itself, Island gives organizations unprecedented last-mile control, enabling them to precisely govern all browser activity.

With the Island Enterprise Browser, IT teams log and audit work activity while keeping personal browsing private. Security teams protect sensitive data from even the most sophisticated attacks, with a secure-by-design architecture. And users gain productivity-enhancing features while working in the familiar Chromium-based browser experience. 

Today, the Island Enterprise Browser is helping address a myriad of enterprise needs across all industries, including delivering secure access to SaaS and web apps, enabling zero-trust network access, and making BYOD viable. It also lets organizations onboard contractors in minutes instead of weeks, supports smooth M&A transitions and reduces reliance on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

VMblog:  How do you partner with IGEL?  What does that partnership look like?  How long have you been a partner?

Trunk:  We've partnering with IGEL for several years and are focused on delivering a new digital workspace where the user has one combined desktop that looks like the browser environment they're familiar with, but it also gives them access to web apps, office apps and legacy apps in a simplified and flexible environment that secures endpoints and is easy to manage and more cost effective to deploy and support.

VMblog:  What do you plan to show off at your booth at Now & Next 2025?

Trunk:  Our booth will show our next generation digital workspace in action. It's a new, fully browser-based way to deliver end user computing that is a fantastic alternative to VDI and surrounds endpoints with high levels of security.

VMblog:  What do you like about Now & Next? What made you sign up as a sponsor? 

Trunk:  It's all about the connections!  It's well worth our time because those who attend understand today's end user computing challenges, and we can connect with real practitioners and end users and to discuss ways of solving problems together.

VMblog:  What do you hope to take away from Now & Next?

Trunk:  We're excited to connect with and learn more from others within the extended IGEL network. We look forward to connecting with and hearing from real practitioners on how we can solve problems together.

VMblog:  What do you attribute to the growing success of End User Computing?

Trunk:  Today, 80 percent of end user applications get delivered through the browser. And that's usually a consumer-grade browser not built for the needs of enterprises. It's not built for securing sensitive data, for example. Organizations are realizing that the best way to protect data is to protect it at the moment it becomes decrypted, and that's in this browser. End user computing is undergoing a shift right where the user is paramount. In that case, why not have a browser that securely delivers a cloud computing environment direct to the end user with enterprise-grade controls?

VMblog:  How do you and your solution help with the growth of the EUC market?  Where does your technology fit?

Trunk:  We believe the future of end-user computing includes a simplified tech stack with a layer of protection that doesn't compromise on performance or end user satisfaction. We're bringing this vision to life with IGEL and providing a digital workspace that gives users a simplified and flexible environment, and surrounds endpoints with high levels of security. It's an alternative to the traditional physical desktop, VDI and DaaS approaches. Plus, it's easier to manage and more cost effective to deploy and support.

VMblog:  Where do you see the EUC market headed? 

Trunk:  We're going to see more and more browser-based apps serving end users with the browser as the client. That's where the development is today, and where it will continue to be in the future. And, because of the Chromium project, we have a standardized delivery mechanism for those browser-based apps.

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