Performance Optimizations

Session resumption mechanisms dramatically improve HTTPS performance by avoiding full handshakes for returning clients. Session IDs store session state on servers, while session tickets embed encrypted state in client-stored tokens. Configure both mechanisms for maximum compatibility. Set appropriate session timeout values—longer timeouts improve performance but increase security exposure if sessions are compromised. Balance these concerns based on your security requirements.

OCSP stapling eliminates the performance and privacy impact of certificate revocation checking. Without stapling, browsers must contact certificate authority OCSP servers during each new connection, adding latency and revealing browsing patterns. Configure your web server to fetch and cache OCSP responses, including them in the TLS handshake. Verify stapling works correctly using tools like openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -status. Monitor stapling effectiveness to ensure continued operation.

Enable TLS False Start where supported to allow clients to send data before receiving the server's Finished message. This optimization reduces perceived latency by one round trip. TCP Fast Open similarly reduces latency by allowing data in the initial SYN packet. While these optimizations provide meaningful performance improvements, ensure they don't compromise security in your specific environment.

Hardware acceleration significantly improves SSL/TLS performance. Modern CPUs include AES-NI instructions that accelerate AES encryption by 3-10x. Ensure your web server and SSL library utilize these instructions. For high-traffic sites, consider dedicated SSL acceleration hardware or load balancers with SSL offloading capabilities. Cloud providers often include SSL acceleration in their load balancing services, providing performance benefits without hardware investment.