Digital Island Announces Important Patent for Optimizing Content Delivery Networks; Key Patented Technology Allows Digital Island to Uniquely `Fingerprint' Internet Content

Business Wire, Sept 11, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000

Extending its leadership in providing a fast and secure network for e-Business transactions, Digital Island(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:ISLD) announced its first major patent for use in content delivery services.

The Digital Island invention uses unique "fingerprints" of content for many different applications, including detecting unauthorized tampering of data, avoiding the use of outdated or stale content and enabling networks to optimize content delivery and storage. The patent covers multiple uses of these "fingerprints," including identifying files in data communication applications such as downloading, copying, backup and caching.

Originally filed in April 1995 by Dave Farber, Digital Island's chief systems strategist, this patent is part of Digital Island's ongoing effort to consolidate and protect its intellectual property rights. Digital Island also has various pending U.S. and international patent applications in other areas of content delivery, including geographic-based routing, congestion-avoidance routing, and optimized, distributed content delivery. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently allowed Digital Island's first patent application related to its Footprint(R) content delivery technology.

"This invention is broadly applicable within many parts of the content delivery industry," said Farber. "Digital Island plans to make licenses widely available to other content delivery and caching companies," Farber said.

This patent award follows closely on the heels of the receipt by Digital Island of one of the industry's highest security accolades. Last week, Digital Island became the first content delivery service to achieve a certification under the ICSA.net's TruSecure(TM) managed service provider program. The MSP certification ensures that Digital Island protects customers' content and applications against common security risks, including email viruses, hackers and downtime.

Digital Island(R) is a leading Global e-Business Delivery Network using hosting, content delivery, networking and application services to help companies improve their customers' on-line experience by making Web applications run faster and more reliably and scale globally, resulting in more successful e-Business transactions. Digital Island is headquartered in San Francisco with a presence in 26 countries. www.digitalisland.net.

Important Notice

This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, include but are not limited to: the company's short operating history which makes it difficult to predict its future results of operations; the company's history of operating losses and expected future losses which could impede its ability to address the risks and difficulties encountered by companies in new and rapidly evolving markets; the company's future operating results could fluctuate which may cause volatility or a decline in the price of the company's stock; the possibility that the company may not be able to price its services above the overall cost of bandwidth causing its financial results to suffer; and other factors detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Note to Editors: Digital Island is a registered trademark of Digital Island, Inc. Footprint is a trademark of Digital Island, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.