SSL performance tips

The following are two types of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) performance:

• Handshake
• Bulk encryption and decryption

When an SSL connection is established, an SSL handshake occurs. After a connection is made, SSL performs bulk encryption and decryption for each read-write. The performance cost of an SSL handshake is much larger than that of bulk encryption and decryption.

Using a single SSL connection to send multiple requests (rather than opening a connection for each request) can enhance SSL performance. Additionally, it is important to reduce the the number of times a new connection is opened. Decreasing the overall number of connections increases performance for secure communication through SSL connections, as well as non-secure communication through simple TCP/IP connections. One way to send multiple requests over a single SSL connection us to use a browser that supports HTTP 1.1.

Another common approach is to decrease the number of connections (both TCP/IP and SSL) between two WebSphere Application Server components. The following guidelines help to verify the HTTP transport of the application server is configured so that the Web server plug-in does not repeatedly open new connections to the application server.

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