AMD SEV-SNP (Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging) is a confidential computing feature set for virtual machines. It encrypts guest memory and adds integrity protections so the host hypervisor and other privileged software cannot freely read or modify a protected VM’s contents. It also supports attestation, letting a guest prove it is running on expected hardware with the right protections enabled.
This matters because many cloud and datacenter attacks start with privileged access to the host. SEV-SNP is designed to reduce the damage from that level of compromise, especially for workloads handling secrets, keys, or regulated data. Defenders use it to isolate sensitive VMs, but it still depends on the surrounding platform being trustworthy enough to prevent tampering with the physical memory path, firmware, and server access.