Patent ID: 8006091

Claim:
A method of providing failover capability between a plurality of first devices and a second device, the method comprising: receiving, in a failover device from the second device over a network, one or more sets of information for cached secure sessions, where the one or more sets of information for cached secure sessions are encrypted; wherein the one or more sets of information for cached secure sessions comprise cryptographic key information negotiated between the second device and the plurality of first devices and not messages requiring generation of session keys; wherein the cryptographic key information is negotiated in one of a TLS session or a SSL session; decrypting the one or more sets of information for cached secure sessions using a master key; storing the one or more sets of information for cached secure sessions; and, in response to detecting a failure in the second device, resuming the cached secure sessions with the plurality of first devices without generating additional session keys for the cached secure sessions, including encrypting data for the cached secure sessions using the cryptographic key information negotiated between the second device and the plurality of first devices; wherein the method is performed by the failover device.