What is a Server Certificate?
A server certificate, also known as an SSL server certificate, is a digital certificate used to authenticate the identity of a website and encrypt communications using SSL protocols.
For SSL server certificates to be recognized as legitimate, they must be issued by a public Certification Authority (CA). The root certificate of a public CA (used to verify the legitimacy of the CA) is integrated into web browsers and email clients, enabling the verification of issued certificates. Websites with SSL server certificates corresponding to trusted root certificates are marked by web browsers as "secure sites."
While organizations can establish their own private Certification Authorities to issue digital certificates based on custom operational standards, certificates issued by private CAs are not publicly recognized as valid. If a web server is published using an SSL server certificate from a private CA, browsers cannot verify the certificate's legitimacy and designate the site as "not secure."
SSL server certificates are typically stored on web servers to perform encryption and decryption operations during communication (commonly referred to as SSL termination). However, as the number of web servers increases, the cost and complexity of obtaining and managing certificates grow significantly. Additionally, when security appliances like Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) are deployed upstream from web servers, these devices cannot inspect encrypted traffic, limiting their security functionality.
Due to changes in browser behavior, such as clearly marking SSL encryption and higher search engine rankings for SSL-secured pages, many corporate websites are now implementing SSL encryption for all pages. Today, SSL termination is essential for ensuring the security of web communications.
To manage this efficiently, you can deploy an Application Delivery Controller (ADC) at the frontend of your website to handle SSL termination processes. F5’s BIG-IP supports SSL termination and includes SSL acceleration to speed up encryption and decryption using hardware.