A procedure utilized within a company’s IT infrastructure whereby a portion of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) processing duties, normally completed by servers, are instead transferred and handled by a separate hardware device. This device, called an accelerator, is specifically designed to execute required SSL translation functions.

Organizations utilizing an SSL security protocol to transmit business-critical information over a network benefit from the increased protection, but they must also find a way to handle the processing-intensive transfer procedures. When sending data via SSL, servers must perform encryption, decryption and verification duties before any transaction can be completed. These tasks place a large amount of strain on the servers handling them. In order to relieve this server strain, businesses should implement an SSL offload solution performance not only in their SSL transmissions, but across the entire network. This process shifts a portion of the SSL duties to an external device known as an SSL accelerator. This device is specifically designed to perform the encryption, decryption and verification processes required by SSL communications. Shifting these processes away from servers will allow companies to use their resources for other tasks. By focusing the processing attention of servers elsewhere, businesses can improve