VMware vCenter Server is the centralized management platform for VMware vSphere environments, enabling the administration of ESXi hosts, virtual machines, and associated resources. It provides features such as workload management, high availability, and lifecycle operations across virtualized infrastructure.
VMware ESXi is the hypervisor that runs directly on physical hardware and hosts virtual machines. Together with vCenter, it supports advanced capabilities including virtual machine encryption, which relies on external Key Management Servers (KMS) for secure key handling.
Through its support for the OASIS Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP), vCenter can integrate with external key management solutions to enable secure encryption and key lifecycle management.