How Best Cloud Security Solution Winner Onebrief Brings Modern, AI-Enabled Command into the Most Secure Networks

We sat down with Grant Demaree, Chief Executive Officer of Onebrief, to discuss the company’s 2026 Tech Ascension Award for Best Cloud Security Solution and how Onebrief is bringing modern, AI-enabled command capabilities into the government’s most sensitive environments. In this interview, Grant explains what it takes to earn authorization for classified networks, why security and performance under contested conditions are essential, and how AI-powered planning can help military leaders make faster, better-informed decisions without compromising operational security.

What does it take for a cloud platform to operate inside the government’s most sensitive environments, and how does Onebrief meet that bar?

The hardest part of defense software is rarely the software. It is getting it live, and proven as secure, on the networks where the real work happens. Most commercial software was not designed for those environments, so we built Onebrief for the hardest networks from the start.

Onebrief operates there. It is a cloud-native command platform authorized at Impact Level 5, Impact Level 6, and Top Secret, the government’s highest bars for sensitive and classified data. Earning that meant independent security testing and formal government authorization, plus building for expeditionary, low-bandwidth conditions, because a real operation does not pause when connectivity gets hard.

You emphasize that Onebrief’s security posture is verified. What does that authorization process actually involve?

It is deliberately hard, and it should be. An independent set of eyes tries to break the software before it is ever trusted with sensitive data. That means authenticated vulnerability scanning, where testers work from inside the system rather than knocking on the front door; static and dynamic testing, which examines both the code and the software as it runs; independent cybersecurity review; and formal authorization, where an accountable government authority signs off.

None of it is self-graded. We do not get to assert that we are secure. Someone outside the company has to agree, at every step. For anyone trusting this software with real operations, that is the standard they should demand.

Onebrief is also built for contested, low-bandwidth, expeditionary conditions. Why does that matter, for security and for the mission?

The environments where this matters most are rarely predictable. Command posts move, bandwidth is limited, and connectivity can be intermittent. If a platform only works under ideal conditions, it is not built for the mission.

So, we design for the hard cases. The platform must hold its security posture and keep a staff working from one shared, live picture even when the network is degraded. Getting that right is a core part of what we build.

Why does this matter, and why now?

It’s about combat power. Better military decisions are the fastest, cheapest way to create more of it, and planning sits upstream of almost every decision. Improve planning and you get decision superiority: commanders making faster, better decisions than the adversary, which lifts everything downstream. But you only get that if the software can run where the decisions are made. A brilliant planning platform that cannot operate on a classified network never matters.

Why now? AI is advancing rapidly, increasing both the advantage of better decisions and the cost of moving too slowly. A year of AI progress now can feel like a decade of change. At the same time, the old barrier, getting software live and authorized on classified networks, is finally coming down. This is the moment the most capable software can reach the most sensitive environments, and we would rather be early and proven than late.

What does this mean for the planners and commanders who use Onebrief?

It means modern, AI-enabled planning in the places they were told they could not have it. Teams using Onebrief have reported a 90% reduction in planning cycle time, a 50% increase in information accuracy, and roughly 20 hours of redundant weekly work removed per planning team. Instead of rebuilding the same plan across disconnected tools, the whole staff works from one live picture, and a change updates everywhere at once.

That is why adoption has spread across major U.S. operational plans and Geographic Combatant Commands. When planners can work faster without sacrificing rigor, securely and on the networks they already use, adoption follows.

Onebrief’s roots are in the military. Are the problems it solves unique to defense, or does it reach further?

It reaches well beyond defense, even though our roots are deeply military. The core problem, turning a flood of information into sound decisions quickly and securely, appears anywhere the stakes are high, and the coordination is complex. The military presents the hardest version of this challenge, which is why we built for it first, but the same platform and the same security discipline carry far beyond it. Solve the hardest version, and the solution tends to travel.

What do you see ahead for Onebrief?

More of the same direction, pushed harder. The goal has always been to make a command superhuman, in speed and in the quality of its plans. As AI improves, we get closer to agentic AI that can generate and pressure-test a plan against a thinking adversary, in simulation, before it is ever real, always with humans making the decisions.

None of that changes the discipline underneath. Every new capability must earn its place on the most secure networks in the same way, through real review and formal authorization. We will keep expanding what the platform can do while holding that line on security. That balance is fundamental to how we build, and we are only getting started.