What is the biggest load on CPU resources for a ProxySG?

The correct response regarding the biggest load on CPU resources for a ProxySG is related to emulating certificates. Emulating certificates involves generating and managing secure SSL/TLS connections between clients and the intended servers. This process requires significant computational resources because it includes operations such as decrypting SSL traffic, inspecting the contents for policy compliance, and then re-encrypting the data before sending it to the client.

The complexity of dealing with certificates increases with the volume and size of traffic being processed, as well as the number of simultaneous connections. Whenever a connection is established, the ProxySG must handle key exchanges, maintain secure sessions, and apply policies, all of which can impose a heavy load on the CPU.

In contrast, while decrypted network traffic, network scanning, and user authentication are all resource-intensive tasks in their own right, they typically do not involve the same level of encryption and decryption operations that certificate emulation requires. As such, they tend to be less demanding on CPU resources compared to the continuous handling of certificates and encrypted sessions.