Embodiments of the present application provide a certificate management method and apparatus in an NFV architecture. The certificate management method includes: determining, by an MANO, a storage network element, where the storage network element is configured to store a certificate of a VNFC, and the storage network element is different from the VNFC; creating, by the MANO, storage space in the storage network element, where the storage space is used to store the certificate of the VNFC; and sending, by the MANO, an address of the storage space to the VNFC, so that the VNFC accesses the address of the storage space, obtains the certificate of the VNFC, and directly communicates with another network element by using the certificate stored in the storage network element. The VNFC does not locally store the certificate.