DoW Zero Trust Proving Ground

The Zero Trust Proving Ground (ZTPG) is a government-directed, vendor-agnostic evaluation environment designed to objectively assess how commercial Zero Trust (ZT) technologies perform against the Department of War's (DoW) ZT Activities and Capabilities. As the DoW advances its ZT Strategy, acquisition professionals and mission owners require consistent, evidence-based assessments of ZT products to inform technology decisions and reduce implementation risk. The ZTPG addresses this need by providing a neutral, repeatable, and technically rigorous mechanism to validate ZT solutions in a realistic DoW enterprise environment.

The ZTPG is designed and overseen by MIT Lincoln Laboratory (ZTPG Manager), with day-to-day test execution performed independently by a ZTPG Operator. Vendors participate collaboratively by providing their Product Under Test (PUT), subject-matter expertise, and configuration guidance. The ZTPG does not rank or compare vendors; instead, it validates each PUT individually against specific ZT Activities defined in DoW guidance, measuring outcomes rather than implementation methods.