If you’ve optimized every possible element of your SSL-secured Web site, applications or SaaS deployment, but you’re still getting complaints about slow response times and endless waits, there’s a likely culprit at large: SSL processing overhead. The new, much-more-secure 2048-bit SSL standard, mandated earlier in 2014, is five times more compute-intensive than the previous 1024-bit standard.
This translates into a 5x increased load on application and Web servers, which can bog down performance dramatically. Network managers have only a couple of options for dealing with the increased overhead of 2048-bit SSL processing: Throw more servers and memory resources at the problem, or invest in a robust, dedicated SSL offloading solution to remove processing overhead from servers.
The latter approach offers a number of advantages. By removing the overhead of SSL processing from Web and application servers, those resources can now operate at greater efficiency and with much higher performance. Application and Web response times are reduced, resulting in improved end-user experience.
SSL offloading works by handling compute-intensive SSL functions for servers – such as key exchange, bulk encryption and client certificate management. It’s ideal for scaling SaaS and e-commerce environments, as well as business-critical applications for healthcare, financial services and other industries.
If your organization is struggling with slow Web and application response times due to SSL processing overhead, check out Array’s SSL Offloading page as well as our APV Series application delivery controllers, which offer the lowest cost per SSL transaction per second, as well as a robust set of load balancing, application acceleration, security and other capabilities.
Mr. Andersen has more than 20 years of high-tech industry experience, and has previously served in various roles at Cisco Systems, Tasman Networks and Sun Microsystems. He served as Senior Director of Marketing for Array Networks for more than ten years, leading critical positioning, sales generation and marketing efforts as well as sales training and partner marketing, enablement and management. Paul holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from San Jose State University.
