Behind the Market's Swings: Technology at Work Assuring Internet Market Access; Market Leaders Assure Customer Transactions with HydraWEB's Technology.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 21, 1998--With the market careening and experts unable to predict its ups and downs, a key technology, application-aware load balancing from HydraWEB Technologies, Inc., assures investors' transactions on the Internet, as well as constant access to market data information.

When the market is volatile, it creates a volatile underlying computer transaction load. 80% of the Fortune 500 Securities Industry Companies and other Industry giants, including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and DLJdirect deal with these swings in transaction loads by investing in HydraWEB's load balancing technology as a key component for their mission-critical Internet operation. This technology allows information to be available for client use even in times of exponential increases in volume. Allowing those in the Securities Industry to both assure client access to accounts and provide the latest market data everyday is key to the success of Internet e-brokerage and e-banking sites.

Application-aware load balancing network infrastructure devices from HydraWEB route user requests for information automatically to the server that is most available to handle that particular request. This improves overall system reliability and access to information, which leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and productivity, even during periods of extreme market swings. HydraWEB's application-aware balancing capability understands the application's availability to handle requests; if a problem in a server were to occur, the technology routes requests around those servers and applications to continue to assure smooth customer transactions.

"Load balancing from HydraWEB gives us confidence that our site will be available for customers to trade whenever they need it," said Suresh Kumar, CIO at DLJdirect. "During the market swings, we experienced an over 100% increase in the number of trades executed through DLJdirect. Having dependable technology like HydraWEB lets us breathe easier when we hit those peak periods."

In addition to the Securities Industry, 75% of the market data providers as well as many major on-line publishers also depend on HydraWEB's load balancing technology. On a daily basis, HydraWEB assures the delivery of market data from companies like Reuters and Bridge Information Systems to brokers and analysts who depend on that information for making timely market decisions for both individual and institutional investors.

The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, owned by Dow Jones & Company, uses HydraWEB in its on-line publishing operations. On August 31st and September 1st, when market volatility caused dramatic highs and lows, requests for market news, quotes, and portfolio checks drove usage up, increasing the number of subscribers visiting the site by nearly 25%. "Even with an almost double increase in hits, HydraWEB's load balancing technology helped keep our site available to our subscribers," said Tom Baker, General Manager for the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition. "During a worrisome time for our subscribers, we were able to provide them the constant information they needed."

Adds SmartMoney Interactive's Technical Director, Jonathan Bellack, "By accurately distributing traffic across each of our Web servers, HydraWEB's load-balancing agents insure that our site responds at its best, even when the traffic doubled during the recent major market correction." SmartMoney Interactive is an initiative of SmartMoney Magazine, a joint venture of Dow Jones and Hearst Corp. About HydraWEB Technologies, Inc.

HydraWEB Technologies, Inc. is the pioneer and leading provider of application-aware, load-balancing technology. With reliable information availability as its goal, this unique technology extends standard TCP/IP and UDP/IP load balancing to provide the ultimate load balancing support for server environments. Enabled by Hydra Intelligent Agent Technology, application-aware load balancing has the advantage of insight into application availability as well as server software and machine resource performance. This combined insight allows granular load balancing control that maximizes overall system-level performance. Located in the heart of New York's financial district, HydraWEB provides load balancing solutions to 80% of the Fortune 500 Securities Industry companies and 75% of the major Market Data Distribution providers. HydraWEB Technologies, Inc. can be reached at http://www.hydraweb.com or at 1-212-809-5900.

HydraWEB is a trademark of HydraWEB Technologies, Inc. All other products and services found in this document are identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective companies or organizations.