PKI is a critical component of modern cybersecurity, enabling secure communications between servers, digital identities, and application services by leveraging public key cryptography to encrypt, decrypt, and authenticate information. Governed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), PKI certificates are widely used online, verifying authenticity and protecting sensitive data from theft. Asymmetric encryption is the core technology that enables PKI, using two separate keys and more complex algorithms for encryption and decryption. While symmetric encryption is faster, it requires both parties to have access to private secret keys, making asymmetric encryption more suitable for public channels. The benefits of PKI include preventing unauthorized use or access, securing billions of daily communications, and providing a scalable digital identity security solution. Automating PKI certificate management with tools like HashiCorp Vault can help reduce risk, achieve regulatory compliance, and shorten time-to-market, while also addressing the growing demand for protecting workloads, applications, services, and IoT connected devices.