Connectria Provides IBM WebSphere Commerce Express Hosting For FarmTek

ST. LOUIS, MO (December 16, 2004) - Connectria Corporation today announced that it was awarded a contract to provide sophisticated e-commerce hosting services for FarmTek as a virtual extension of their IT organization. Connectria provides FarmTek with a sophisticated e-commerce environment to run its e-commerce applications built using IBM's WebSphere Commerce Express running on Microsoft Windows servers under a customized 24/7 service level agreement. This environment will be used to sell FarmTek's online catalog of agricultural, horticultural and building products. FarmTek will leverage Connectria's advanced Internet and data center infrastructure, as well as its expertise in IT infrastructure technologies from IBM and Microsoft. Connectria is a Premier IBM Business Partner and a Microsoft Certified Solutions Provider.

About FarmTek®
FarmTek® was founded in 1979 with the purpose of bringing the highest quality products at the most competitive prices with exceptional customer service directly to the agricultural, horticultural, building and retail trade communities. With this goal in mind, it has grown from a regional, two-person operation to one with corporate headquarters and sales call center located in South Windsor, CT and a manufacturing and distribution center located in Dyersville, IA. These multiple locations allow its dedicated team of sales and service professionals to service over 150,000 loyal and happy customers worldwide. Due to those customer benefits, and the dedication to providing an extensive product line, FarmTek® was honored to be named in Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies in the country. (www.farmtek.com)

About Connectria
Connectria is a profitable, growing and privately held provider of world-class IT Infrastructure Solutions targeted to large and mid-sized organizations worldwide. Connectria's business has been built through reinvesting profits and without any debt or equity financing. Thus, Connectria is beholden to no one except our customers. Connectria operates world-class Data Centers, Network Operations Centers, and Engineering Centers located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and St. Louis, Missouri, USA. From these facilities, Connectria operates as a virtual extension of our clients' IT organizations.

Connectria's services allow our clients to do more and spend less on their IT infrastructures, typically by 25 - 60% or more. Connectria is staffed 24 hours, 365 days per year to build, monitor and manage mission critical IT environments for our clients. Connectria offers an array of services including full outsourcing of IT infrastructures, managed hosting, disaster recovery, remote monitoring, onsite facilities management, and custom software development and engineering services. For more information, please contact Connectria at 1-800-781-7820 or visit us online at www.connectria.com.

To learn more about Connectria or to receive a detailed quote on any of our services, please contact us.