Riverbed optimises SSL traffic

Riverbed boosts its WAN optimisation roster with SSL control tool

Wan optimisation specialist Riverbed has developed new technology designed to reduce the volume of secure sockets layer (SSL) traffic flowing between enterprise sites.

The company's updated Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS) software platform caches and compresses repeated data being transmitted between two Steelhead devices deployed either end of an enterprise WAN link, accelerating application performance and potentially saving money on bandwidth costs.

The new technology in RiOS version 4.0, dubbed split termination, gives companies the ability to focus on secure business applications like Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft, IBM Websphere and many other types of traffic using HTTP and HTTPS with SSL for the first time, said Riverbed vice president of product management John Martin.

‘The largest untouched section of enterprise WAN traffic today is encrypted application layer traffic running across SSL links – if we cannot see it, we cannot touch it. But RiOS version 4.0 lets us significantly reduce ERP, CRM and HRM traffic that has moved from client-server to web environments’ he said.

Martin stressed the fact that mission critical applications remain secure because the SSL server key never leaves the data centre, so the server based trust certificate is never broken.

‘The client device initiates the connection to the server side Steelhead which recognises that it is an SSL connection and encrypts the link. The client then transfers the temporary session key across to the client side Steelhead so that traffic can be optimised at the edge, then passed through the previously established SSL session, without breaking the trust server key,’ he explained.

Riverbed has also enhanced the Steelhead device to make it easier for non IT staff at remote locations to deploy through auto-discovery of other Steelhead devices on the network.