Applica Solutions and Zephon Partner to Accelerate Zero Trust Maturity for Federal Agencies

Manassas, VA, October 27, 2026: Applica Solutions, Inc., an SBA-certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and HUBZone firm, today announced a strategic partnership with Zephon LLC. Under the partnership, Applica will deliver Zephon's AISE Zero Trust Maturity Platform to federal agencies, together with Applica's integration and cybersecurity services.

Federal agencies face firm deadlines to advance their Zero Trust Architecture under OMB M-22-09, the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model and the DoD Zero Trust Strategy. Yet many still measure progress with manual questionnaires and point-in-time assessments that go stale quickly. AISE replaces that approach with a continuous, evidence-based view of maturity.

What AISE delivers

Dual-framework scoring: one assessment scores maturity against both the DoD ZTA Capability Framework and CISA ZTMM v2.0.

Rapid baselining: a full DoD-aligned baseline in 12 weeks across 7 pillars, 45 capabilities and 152 activities.

Automation: 138 dependency rules recommend answers to 40–50% of assessment questions.

Built-in AI assistant: grounded in DoD, NIST and CISA guidance, it shortens documentation research from 10–15 hours to under one hour.

Living roadmap: re-scores and re-prioritizes automatically as maturity records are ingested and mandates evolve.

Platform plus delivery

Applica brings federal experience in identity, credential and access management (ICAM), cybersecurity policy and compliance, and enterprise integration. That includes enterprise single sign-on for SBA (300+ systems integrated), HSPD-12 credentialing at DOL, IAM modernization at HUD, data-at-rest encryption at IRS, and information security policy support for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Applica holds ISO 9001, 20000 and 27001 certifications and CMMI-DEV and CMMI-SVC Level 3 ratings.

George Sam, President, Applica Solutions: Agencies don't need another static assessment. They need to know where they stand today and what to fix next. AISE gives them that view, and Applica's team turns the roadmap into implemented capabilities.

Vishal Masih, President, Zephon LLC: Applica's federal delivery record and contract access make them an ideal partner to bring AISE to agencies working toward optimal Zero Trust maturity.

How to buy

Agencies can buy AISE licenses and Applica's implementation services through:

NASA SEWP VI: 80TECH26D0663 (Category B) and 80TECH26D1682 (Category C)

GSA MAS: 47QSMA20D08NJ

GSA VETS 2: 47QTCH18D0005

GSA OASIS+ (Applica JV, LLC)

As an SDVOSB, Applica is also eligible for set-aside and sole-source awards.

About Applica Solutions, Inc.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, Applica Solutions delivers cybersecurity, cloud engineering, software development, IT governance and data engineering services to federal agencies, including VA, Treasury, DHS, HHS, Labor, USDA and NASA. Learn more at www.applicasolutions.net

About Zephon LLC

Zephon LLC, headquartered in McKinney, TX, specializes in Zero Trust, Identity and Access Management, DevSecOps, and GRC consulting and services. Since 2018, Zephon has been delivering on the mission to empower leaders and organizations with hassle-free, resilient cybersecurity solutions that simplify management, protect critical assets, and enable confident decision-making, for large organizations like the IRS, DLA, D&B, and Comcast. Learn more at www.zephon.tech

Media and business inquiries: bd@applica-inc.com