SSL Offloading

In order to relieve Web servers in an organization's data center of the burden of encrypting/decrypting data sent via a secure socket layer (SSL) security protocol - the security protocol that is implemented in every Web browser - SSL offloading sends the process to a separate device to perform the coding/decoding task. This additional SSL offload device is specifically designed to perform SSL acceleration and termination. As the encrypting/decrypting processes are taken off the Web servers completely, it frees up these servers to maximize performance and efficiency. This results in the increased handling of multiple functions, which leads to fewer bottlenecks so customers experience faster response times and shorter waiting periods.

For many companies, the use of the SSL security protocol to control and secure network traffic is the major type of encrypted application transfer. When inbound and outbound data is encrypted, it may not be able to be properly scanned. This lack of security poses critical threats to business information, applications and other data resources. In such cases, attacks disguised as normal SSL encrypted files may pass into a network untouched. With an SSL offload solution, organizations can shift their encrypting/decrypting away from Web servers and allow a specialized product to properly scan encrypted data for potential SSL-encrypted threats or information leaks.

Server Offloading Equals Server Optimization

SSL offloading moves SSL encoding/decoding functions away from busy Web servers to specialized devices that are better equipped to handle CPU-intensive SSL calculations. This allows the Web servers to dedicate important CPU resources to other application processing tasks, which can improve performance. This shift in server resources can help businesses save costs by maximizing the utilization of servers and eliminating the need to buy additional hardware. With this added application optimization, organizations can also eliminate the downtime and performance degradation that occurs when Web servers try to handle these demanding SSL tasks. This offloading occurs transparently to the end user and ultimately leads to a better user experience. Whether providing applications and information at a centralized location or across a wide area network (WAN) consisting of branch offices and mobile users, SSL offloading can provide critical productivity and performance gains.

Radware SSL Offloading Solutions

For optimal application performance, increased security, and next-generation global traffic management, Radware offers SSL solutions to increase an organization's application delivery efficiency. Radware's AppDirector and Alteon solutions offer SSL offload options, as well as a host of other features to provide full "business-aware" application acceleration and availability capabilities.

Reduce costs and administration complexity within your server infrastructure through centralized, tamper-resistant SSL certificates/key protection management that can also meet your regulatory or compliance needs (e.g., FIPS 140-2). With SSL acceleration and HTTP compression, AppXcel eliminates server-intensive tasks such as encrypting/decrypting of SSL security data, allowing servers to devote more capacity to application processing requirements.

For questions or more information about our SSL offloading solutions, please contact us and a knowledgeable Radware representative will answer promptly.