Digital Island Launches Boston Data Center to Address Growing Demand for Services.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2001

Digital Island Inc. (Nasdaq:ISLD)

-- New data center already at 50 percent of capacity

-- Customers include the Federal Election Committee, The Gale Group, ISI,
Sales.com, Siebel Systems, Thomson Financial, and Ziff-Davis

-- Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems co-sponsor launch event

Digital Island Inc. (Nasdaq:ISLD) today officially launched its new data center in Medford, Mass., providing a regional hub to extend the value and reach of its managed Internet infrastructure services for global e-Businesses.

Through the facility, Digital Island will provide a complete range of hosting, network and Footprint(R) content delivery services that drive e-Business transactions with speed, security and reliability. Digital Island customers with hosted servers in the data center receive the compound benefits of delivering an improved online experience to their end customers, while realizing the cost and time-to-market benefits of working through a hosted model.

Digital Island also announced today a set of customers with hosted operations in the Boston area facility, including the Federal Election Committee, The Gale Group, ISI(R), Sales.com, Siebel Systems, Thomson Financial, and Ziff-Davis. These companies all share the common business goal of maintaining control of their mission-critical applications while realizing the security, flexibility and scalability benefits of an outsourced solution.

"As a global business it is critical that ISI can ensure that our customers have consistent access to a global network of information," said Frank Licata, senior vice president, System & Technology, ISI. "We recognize Digital Island's data centers as an excellent choice for a secure and reliable platform for hosting business-critical applications, allowing us to stay focused on our core business."

"Our state-of-the-art data centers are specifically designed to meet the most stringent e-Business requirements for security, scalability and reliability," said Ruann F. Ernst, chairman and CEO of Digital Island. "Because we can guarantee the performance of our network, we are the ideal partner for companies in markets like financial services and media and entertainment. With our new data center, we can offer companies in the Boston region a fast, safe and cost-effective way to reach their global markets."

Digital Island now has nine world-class data centers strategically located in Boston, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Honolulu, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Jose and Tokyo. These ultra-secure facilities are maintained by 24 x 7 on-site personnel, and each contains backup and disaster recovery systems to ensure the safety and availability of customers' applications, services and data. With the addition of the Boston area data center, Digital Island increases the capacity of its integrated network while maximizing the hosting services it offers to a crucial financial services market.

The data center launch is marked by a special event and reception, co-hosted by Sun and Cisco Systems, Inc., at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston from 4:00-7:00 p.m. EST. Digital Island will also be giving guided tours of the data center on Friday, February 9.

Cisco will provide Layer 2 - 7 infrastructure solutions that enable advanced IP and content services, including Digital Island's PrivateHost(TM) and CustomHost(TM) offerings, as well as joint marketing and sales programs for the new data center. Digital Island is a Cisco Powered Network.

"Digital Island's new Web outsourcing services will allow enterprise customers to improve the performance of Web-based services, significantly increasing the quality, reliability and speed of the end users' Web experience," said Cheng Wu, vice president and general manager for Cisco's content networking business unit. "The CustomHost service is an excellent solution for enterprises who need to outsource a customized data center with a global infrastructure."

Extending their strategic relationship with Digital Island, Sun will be a major infrastructure provider of products and technologies for the new data center. In addition they will work together on joint sales and marketing activities that target customers who will benefit from a Digital Island solution running on a Sun platform.

"Sun is pleased to work closely with Digital Island to extend its hosting services to customers in the Boston area," said Dan Miller, vice president for Sun's Global Service Providers. "The combination of Digital Island's world-class services running on Sun's Enterprise(TM) and carrier-grade Netra(TM) servers and software technologies create a formidable platform for deploying e-Business services."

About Digital Island

Digital Island is the leading provider of managed Internet infrastructure for enterprises that need to give their customers a great Web experience in order to drive e-Business transactions. The company's integrates managed hosting, content delivery and network services to bypass Internet congestion and guarantee fast and relevant interactions. Digital Island is headquartered in San Francisco, and its global e-Business delivery network reaches 33 countries. www.digitalisland.net

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 and Footprint are registered trademarks of Digital Island, Inc. CustomHost and PrivateHost are trademarks of Digital Island, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Sun Enterprise, Netra and the Network Is The Computer trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.