Jane Edwards 
- Zscaler and AWS have signed a strategic collaboration agreement for secure GenAI adoption
- The partnership combines Zero Trust Exchange with Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker
- The 2026 FedCiv Summit will spotlight AI, cybersecurity and federal modernization initiatives
Zscaler and Amazon Web Services have agreed to collaborate to help government agencies, healthcare organizations and educational institutions deploy generative artificial intelligence capabilities while maintaining security, compliance and governance requirements.
As federal agencies expand AI initiatives and strengthen cybersecurity programs, industry and government leaders will discuss related priorities at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 FedCiv Summit on Oct. 29. The event will feature discussions about AI; cybersecurity and compliance-driven initiatives; data, cloud and compute infrastructure; and cross-agency and enterprisewide programs. Sign up now!
Under the strategic collaboration agreement, or SCA, Zscaler said Tuesday it will combine its Zero Trust Exchange platform with AWS offerings such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker. The companies said they will work together on integrations, reference architectures and joint go-to-market efforts designed to help organizations move generative AI initiatives from pilot programs to production environments.
As part of the agreement, Zscaler and AWS will conduct pilot programs, customer workshops and field engagements focused on secure AI adoption across the public sector.
What Is Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange?
Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange is a cloud-native security platform built on zero trust principles. The platform connects users, applications, workloads and devices based on identity, context and business policies rather than network location.
According to Zscaler, the platform is designed to provide least-privilege access and help organizations secure applications and data across cloud, hybrid and distributed environments. It uses AI and machine learning capabilities to support cyberthreat protection, data security and automated security operations.
What Are the 3 Pillars of the Zscaler-AWS Collaboration?
The companies outlined three primary focus areas under the agreement.
The first pillar centers on secure access to generative AI applications and data. According to Zscaler, the approach uses continuous identity verification and least-privilege access policies to govern how data enters and exits prompts, responses and connected data sources across hybrid and multicloud environments.
The second pillar addresses protection for AI development and deployment workflows. The effort focuses on workload segmentation, protection of training data and model endpoints, and governance throughout the development lifecycle for applications built on Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker.
The third pillar focuses on centralized visibility, governance and audit readiness. The collaboration supports security analytics and centralized policy enforcement to help organizations document data flows, access decisions and perform continuous monitoring.
What GenAI Use Cases Are the Companies Targeting?
The SCA highlights three generative AI use cases across government, healthcare and education sectors.
One use case involves security operations center copilots designed to support analyst productivity and accelerate investigation and response activities while protecting sensitive security data.
Another focuses on operational technology visibility applications intended to improve situational awareness, identify risks and support access segmentation in OT environments.
The third use case involves citizen and patient service bots that provide AI-assisted self-service capabilities while helping organizations protect regulated information.
What Security Practices Do Zscaler & AWS Recommend?
Zscaler and AWS encouraged organizations to inventory approved and unapproved AI tools; apply zero trust principles to all generative AI interactions; classify data before it enters AI workflows; and adopt validated reference architectures.
The companies also recommended building audit readiness into deployments through logging, policy documentation and continuous monitoring.
Zscaler and AWS plan to conduct joint customer engagements and provide additional technical guidance and deployment resources.
