Q. Does using LDAP encrypted with SSL (LDAPS) change performance significantly?

A. Anything encrypted with SSL typically uses more CPU resources, because received data has to be decrypted and sent data has to be encrypted, and SSL-encrypted LDAP is no different. When LDAPS is used, you'd expect to see a drop in the number of requests that can be handled per second. The exact numbers will vary, but a 10 percent drop isn't uncommon. The drop can be mitigated through the use of SSL offload cards, which perform the SSL decryption and encryption on behalf of the server, so there would be no significant performance difference between LDAP and LDAPS.