Data Return Announces Support For Application Center 2000; Data Return First To Market With Latest Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server Technology

Business Wire, Nov 21, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2000

Data Return Corporation (Nasdaq: DRTN), today announced the availability of managed hosting services for Application Center 2000. In addition to migrating www.datareturn.com to this new Microsoft server technology, the company has several enterprise customers that are either live or in the process of moving into production with Application Center 2000.

"Data Return's ability to deploy pre-release Microsoft .NET Enterprise Server technologies in the managed hosting marketplace is a testament to their expertise in this area," said Bob Pulliam, Technical Product Manager for Application Center 2000 at Microsoft Corp. "The company's technical experts have been working closely with us to optimize how Application Center 2000 will function within a clustered server configuration in a managed hosting scenario."

"We have been in the process of testing Application Center 2000 for quite some time. The integrated performance monitor greatly enhances our ability to clearly determine the performance of our clustered Web and application servers and back-end SQL 2000 clusters," said Jason A. Lochhead, CTO of Data Return. "We have successfully deployed Application Center 2000 for one of our large Fortune 1000 customers, who finds this technology especially useful since application upgrades can now be automated utilizing the tools included."

Leveraging Application Center 2000, Data Return will be able to quickly scale to meet customer demand in a very short time frame through the use of automated scripts, moving clustered server installations from a manual scenario to a trouble-free automated function. In addition, customers will have the ability to log in under an administrator password and easily see how server clusters are performing at a glance.

"As the Windows 2000 Global Hosting Partner of the Year, Data Return is well positioned to service large enterprise customers who wish to include Application Center 2000 in their Internet infrastructure," said Garth Fort, Group Product Manager for the Web Infrastructure Group at Microsoft Corp.

About Data Return

Recognized by Microsoft as the Windows 2000 Global Hosting Partner of the Year, Data Return specializes in providing high-availability managed hosting services for companies whose applications are based on Microsoft technologies. These services are utilized by many leading enterprises including Microsoft, Compaq Computer Corporation, RadioShack.com, Texas Instruments, Pier 1 Imports, and World Bank. Data Return also provides managed infrastructure services for the rapidly growing market of Application Service Providers (ASPs). Data Return strategic investors and Global Alliance Partners include Microsoft, Compaq Computer Corporation, and Level 3 Communications. For more information, visit www.datareturn.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information. Statements made in this press release that state Data Return's or management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or predictions of future events, including those contained in the section titled "Business Outlook" are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks, including changes in external competitive market factors, changes in or an inability to execute Data Return's business strategy, unanticipated changes in the hosting industry, the economy in general and changes in the use of the Internet. Data Return cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties summarized under the heading "Factors Affecting Operating Results" in Data Return's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the Quarter Ended September 30, 2000 and are updated from time to time through the filing of reports and registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgment of Data Return as of the date of this release, and Data Return disclaims any intent or obligation to update or revise such forward-looking statements to reflect any change in Data Return's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based.

Data Return is a trademark of Data Return Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.