Businesses in every industry are concerned about secure communications and data privacy. Typically, these tasks are accomplished
through the utilization of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Unfortunately, SSL processing is compute-intensive and can create
performance bottlenecks for a variety of commercial workloads. To address these concerns, organizations can take advantage of
several Sun technologies that work together to mitigate the performance bottlenecks associated with SSL encryption and decryption.
The Solaris Cryptographic Framework (SCF) provides cryptographic services for kernel-level and user-level consumers, as well as
several software encryption modules. Based on the SCF, a new SSL proxy (KSSL) kernel module offloads SSL processing from user
applications, enabling them to transparently take advantage of powerful hardware accelerators, like those available in Sun’s new
UltraSPARC T1 processor, that speed up SSL processing.
This Sun BluePrints article demonstrates how the combination of the Solaris 10 Operating System and the UltraSPARC T1 processor
can be used to create a high performance, secure Web site. It provides a brief overview of SSL technology, as well as an introduction
to the Solaris Cryptographic Framework. Configuration details are included for common security applications, such as Apache, the
Sun Java System Web Server, and secure Java technology applications, enabling these programs to utilize NCP and KSSL technology. A
performance study of secure Web applications is also included.
Note: This article is available in PDF Format only.
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