Abstract: An appliance and a method of pre-establishing SSL session connections for SSL connection establishment are provided. The appliance comprises a secure session pre-handshake establishment module configured to facilitate a secure session connection between an appliance and a server associated with a website, wherein the facilitation causes the appliance to receive session information, determine whether session information corresponding to the secure session connection request has been cached, determine whether the server is associated with a server group based on the determination that session information has not been cached, and form secure session connections between the appliance and servers listed in the server group based on the determination that the server is associated with a server group.

Abstract: A system for optimizing network traffic is described. The system includes a plurality of appliances, each having an SSL session exchange module. An appliance in active state is called a primary appliance, and one or more appliances in inactive state are called secondary appliances. An appliance of a cluster of appliances comprises a secure session exchange module and one or more network interfaces configured to facilitate a first secure session between a client device and the appliance and a second secure session between the appliance and a server. The secure session exchange module in a primary appliance is configured to provide a message for sending to one or more secondary appliances. The message indicates that the appliance is acting as a primary instance for a server. The secure session exchange module in the primary appliance is also configured to acquire at least one session-related parameter through a handshake procedure for a secure layer with the server.