Why is NIO even required?

Why is NIO even required?

It seems the NIO port stuff is a new(ish) requirement.  Previously we had the ServiceDesk Plus server sitting behind a load balancer that handles SSL termination for our entire web presence.  After upgrading to the 9300 branch, we started to notice long page loads, etc, and couldn't figure out why.  Come to find out some things load over (default) port 8081 for whatever reason.  We do not have port 8081 exposed to networks that people have access to ServiceDesk from (and won't), and as such, all traffic is flowing through our load balancer that handles SSL termination.

Knowing this, does anyone have a workaround for the NIO requirement that would still secure all of the traffic and stop all the long load times due to NIO not being exposed?

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