ADVANCED NETWORK SECURITY AND CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION FOR FUTURE DIGITAL ECONOMIES

Future digital economies depend on cloud platforms, software-defined networks, application programming interfaces, connected devices, and distributed workforces. This interdependence expands economic opportunities but additionally transforms identity compromise, configuration errors, vulnerable software components, and service disruptions into systemic risks. This review critically synthesizes research published from 2020 to 2025 on advanced network security and cloud infrastructure protection. It analyzes the integration of zero trust, continuous authorization, artificial-intelligence-assisted detection, cloud-native controls, DevSecOps, encryption, plus resilience engineering, rather than their isolated implementation. A structured review protocol, guided by PRISMA 2020, was applied to thirty peer-reviewed and credible sources selected for topical relevance, methodological clarity, and direct contributions to network or cloud security.The evidence was coded across threat,control, implementation, governance, and economic-resilience dimensions. Evidence suggests that zero trust provides a valuable architectural discipline, but its effectiveness depends on trustworthy telemetry, identity lifecycle governance, microsegmentation, policy automation, and human monitoring. Cloud protection is most effective when configuration assurance, workload security, software-supply-chain controls, and data protection are embedded throughout development and operations.