Towards A Holistic Zero‑Trust Identity-Driven Security Architecture: Bridging Cloud, Iot, And Microservices

Abstract

In recent years, the cybersecurity landscape has undergone transformative changes driven by the proliferation of cloud platforms, microservices architectures, the Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile environments. Traditional perimeter‑based security models—designed around the assumption of a trusted internal network and untrusted external world—have increasingly proven inadequate. The paradigm of “Zero Trust,” premised on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” advocates verifying every access request regardless of its origin. This article proposes a comprehensive, unified architecture that adapts zero‑trust principles across cloud services, microservices, IoT devices, and mobile endpoints. Building on established frameworks from identity management, software-defined perimeters, intrusion detection and prevention, and digital identity guidelines, we synthesize a holistic model that addresses the heterogeneity and dynamic nature of modern digital infrastructures. Through conceptual analysis and cross-domain integration, we demonstrate how identity-centric controls, contextual authentication, microsegment‑level policy enforcement, and continuous monitoring can converge to deliver robust, scalable, and privacy-aware security. Additionally, we explore the challenges—such as scalability constraints, performance overhead, identity correlation, and privacy ramifications—and propose areas for future research. Our findings contribute to bridging the literature gap by offering a unified blueprint that supports the deployment of Zero Trust not only in enterprise IT and cloud environments but also across IoT and microservices-based systems.