Context We currently have an Apache web server in the DMZ set up as a reverse proxy and load balancer for two machines running Windows Server 2008 (IIS) inside. The Apache server has a genuine SSL certificate and serves up both http and https, however, the balancer members in the load balancing section are set to: BalancerMember {https://server1} and {https://server2}. The IIS web servers have self-signed certificates in order to respond to the https requests. My question: Do we need to forward any requests from Apache (in the DMZ) to the inside using SSL? e.g can the reverse proxy forward the requests using HTTP? and if so, why would I choose to forward them with SSL? (how secure is the http line between the dmz and the inside); In other words, can I totally disable SSL on my inside web servers?