Zero Trust Architecture in the cloud : Microsoft Azure as a central hub

Abstract

With the aim of finding out the utility of building a Zero Trust framework with cloud computing, particularly through Microsoft Azure services, the topic “Zero Trust Architecture in the cloud: Microsoft Azure as a central hub” has been chose for this master thesis. The security model which is based on the principle of “never trust, always verify” is a persuasive approach and it is increasingly becoming a cyber security standard since it works on the assumption breach and verifies each request regardless of its source or destination. This thesis explores the fundamental concepts of building infrastructure as code as well as its application to the management of source control of the infrastructure. The goal is to advance scalability, optimize governance processes and enhance system security at varying complexity. In the current context of the digitalization, mitigating cyberattacks and preserving data have proven to be an essential and demanding objection. The idea of this study is to develop, demonstrate and document a solution for building and implementing infrastructure based on a Zero Trust model which plays an indispensable role in developing and managing projects effectively. Furthermore, the study examines and explains how a Zero Trust architecture can enable secure and authorized access to enterprise resources that are distributed across various environments regardless of its location. In addition to the time and resource saving benefits for businesses, challenges have also been entailed in implementing a Zero Trust architecture, such as the stringent requirements of maintaining security consistency between resources, along with necessity for continuous updates for security enhancements to sustain with the constant evolution and change of cyber threats and attack techniques.