Broadband e2e, Xdrive Form Strategic Partnership.

Business Editors & High-Tech Industry Writers

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000

Broadband e2e, a fast-growing provider of Internet connectivity and online solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs), has formed a strategic partnership with Xdrive, the leading provider of intelligent access solutions to stored information.

"Small and medium-sized businesses can't risk losing their mission data such as payroll records, billing information and customer orders," said Howard Freedland, chief executive officer and co-chairman of Broadband e2e. "Yet, we know that most small businesses do not back up their files. That's what this partnership is all about -- using the Internet to make it easy to back up data. Only if it is easy will people do backups."

In effect, Xdrive is an Internet hard drive, providing each employee at a Broadband e2e customer company with 25 MB of password-protected storage on a remote server. Files can be backed up right online because the Broadband e2e package includes a high-speed Internet connection. It also makes it possible to access important data remotely, no matter where a customer's office happens to be today. With Xdrive, information and knowledge can be accessed and shared any time, anywhere through any Web-enabled device, including wireless, in a format that is usable.

In describing Xdrive as the best Online Data Storage/Backup in the Services Category, the editors of Smart Business Magazine called it "The best way to take your work home." It works equally well from a hotel room or at a client's office.

Xdrive recently surpassed its 3.5 million subscriber mark, a remarkable testament to its popularity and usefulness.

"By leveraging our leading-edge technology with Broadband e2e," said Brett O'Brien, founder and CEO of Xdrive, "we're not only giving our individual and enterprise users the highest level of flexibility, we're helping SMBs to become more productive, more efficient and to level the playing field for them against larger firms."

By adding to its list of partners and its bundle of applications solutions plus DSL connectivity, Broadband e2e is moving quickly and assertively to reach out to the approximately 5 million U.S. companies with fewer than 100 employees. The Santa Ana-based firm has recently begun building one of the largest field sales forces in the ASP industry and has established a complementing Customer Contact Center to provide an unprecedented level of customer assistance.

Broadband e2e's core package of business productivity applications includes a customizable and personalized corporate intranet site, professional e-mail with a custom domain name, shared calendaring, group document management, intra-company instant messaging, online secure data backup, contact management, and a remote meeting and presentation system.

The company's name derives both from its operating medium and its goal. "Broadband" refers to the large quantities of data and information that can be sent via the Internet and "e2e" refers to "end-to-end" solutions to business problems.

About Broadband e2e

Broadband e2e sells attractively priced end-to-end business computing solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. A fundamental of the Broadband e2e approach is to provide each client with a connectivity and online computing consultant who will help the client get started on the Internet, and help keep the client operating effectively. The company assembles solutions from a group of best-of-breed technology providers including Rhythms NetConnections and an array of application service providers. For more information, contact Broadband e2e at 877/855-8484 or visit the company Web site at http://www.bbe2e.com.

About Xdrive

Xdrive, a privately held company with headquarters in Santa Monica, is the world's largest Internet hard drive and leading provider of universal file access. Its investors include Wit SoundView Ventures, Goldman Sachs, eCompanies, Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, JUMP Investors, Baroda Ventures, VeriSign and America Online Inc. Investments from leading companies in the storage market include VERITAS Software and EMC Corporation. The management team comprises executives from established technology and consumer brand companies.