Currently for each request a new connection is opened. This is not the most efficient way due to TCP 3-way handshake - especially for remote servers. Investigate using connection pooling - does as7 support it - is it really faster - what are memory changes - does it allow secure connections? If the answers are positive, implement it.
The JRE provides pooling out of the box (when requests are at most 7sec apart from each other), so there is no need to do anything.