Cisco WS-SVC-SSL-1-K9= Network Switch Component Networking

The SSL Service Module is an integrated service module for the Cisco® Catalyst® 6500 Series and Cisco 7600 Series Internet Routers that offloads processor-intensive tasks related to securing traffic with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), increases the number of secure connections supported by a Web site, and reduces the operational complexity of high-performance, Web server farms.

Key features of the SSL Service Module include:
-Server SSL offload—performs all SSL-related tasks, allowing servers to handle high-speed clear text traffic.
-Scalable performance—provides a simple means of addressing increased performance requirements by installing additional SSL modules in a Cisco Catalyst 6500 switch.
-Stickiness—maintains persistence even when clients request new session IDs, in Integrated Mode with Content Switching Module (CSM).
-Certificate optimization—provides cost savings by requiring only a single certificate copy vs. a copy for each server subject to customer and certificate authority agreement.
-Backend encryption—SSL Module offers end to end security by also encrypting the communication between Module and servers as well.

Up to four SSL service modules can be installed in each chassis providing the fastest SSL session setup rates and bulk encrypted throughput in the industry and supporting the highest number of concurrent connections:

•3000 connection setups/second per module—10,000 per Chassis fully-populated with SSL modules

•300 Mbps bulk encrypted throughput per chassis module—1.2 Gbps per fully-populated with SSL modules

•64,000 concurrent client connections—256,000 per chassis fully-populated with SSL modules

The SSL Service Module offloads all SSL processing, allowing the end Web and eCommerce servers to process more requests for content and handle more e-transactions—providing a multifold increase in the performance of eCommerce and secure sites using encryption.

As eCommerce continues to grow and involve more applications, security in business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions becomes essential. In B2C transactions, analysts estimate that more than 70 percent of consumers avoid making online transactions for fear that someone will steal their credit card numbers. As a result, SSL has become the de facto standard for securing e-commerce transactions.

Businesses use the Internet to streamline operations, improve customer service, and close sales. Businesses are also moving legacy applications to the Web and opening them to intranet and extranet use—requiring them to provide high-speed, secure, authenticated access to confidential information. Increasingly, businesses are using SSL accelerators to perform authentication, encryption, and decryption processing.