SSL Offloading Definition
SSL offloading is the process of removing the SSL based encryption from incoming traffic that a web server receives to relieve it from decryption of data. Security Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol that ensures the security of HTTP traffic and HTTP requests on the internet. SSL traffic can be compute intensive since it requires encryption and decryption of traffic. SSL (called TLS or Transport Layer Security now) relies on public key cryptography to encrypt communications between the client and server sending messages safely across networks. Encryption of sensitive information protects against potential hackers and man-in-the-middle attacks.
How does SSL Offloading Work?
SSL offloading relieves a web server of the processing burden of encrypting and decrypting traffic sent via SSL. Every web browser is compatible with SSL security protocol, making SSL traffic common. The processing is offloaded to a separate server designed specifically to perform SSL acceleration or SSL termination. SSL certificates use cryptography keys for encryption. RSA keys of increasing key lengths (e.g. 1024 bits and 2048 bits) were the most common cryptography keys until a few years ago. But more efficient ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) keys of shorter key lengths are replacing the RSA keys as the mechanism to encrypt traffic.
