Datamax Jonesboro Arkansas Online

In late January 2009, a catastrophic ice storm hit Northeast Arkansas. Jonesboro was paralyzed. Power lines snapped like twigs, trees fell on roofs, and the entire city was dark and silent for nearly two weeks. Datamax, which at the time primarily sold and serviced , saw its entire business model evaporate overnight. No power meant no office workers, and no office workers meant no broken printers to fix.

For 72 hours, Mark stayed in that freezing basement, sleeping on a stack of old printer paper boxes, keeping the battery charged by running extension cords to a diesel generator parked outside. He survived on gas station coffee and beef jerky. datamax jonesboro arkansas

Today, Datamax in Jonesboro is a regional powerhouse for cybersecurity and cloud hosting. But they still keep a single, refurbished 1990s copier in their lobby as a monument to the “Ice Man of Caraway Road.” Ask any old-timer at the Jonesboro Couch’s Barbecue: “Why does Datamax answer their phones 24/7?” The answer: “Because Mark still sleeps better on a stack of paper boxes than in his own bed.” In late January 2009, a catastrophic ice storm

For two years, former copier technicians—guys who knew how to fix gears and fusers—were taught how to configure firewalls, manage Microsoft 365 tenants, and stop ransomware. It was a brutal transition. One old-timer famously threw a network switch across the room yelling, “This doesn’t have any moving parts! How do I fix something with no moving parts?!” Datamax, which at the time primarily sold and

With the power out, the sump pump in the basement failed. The basement began to flood with freezing rainwater. The IT manager, a guy named Mark (last name omitted for privacy), realized that if that server died, those plants wouldn’t be able to restart their assembly lines for weeks.

The interesting twist? They didn’t fire their copier repairmen. They retrained them.

While “Datamax” in Jonesboro, Arkansas, might not be a household name like Walmart (which was founded in nearby Bentonville), the story of this specific office technology and IT solutions provider is a classic Arkansas tale of local resilience, the death of the analog world, and a surprising pivot that saved dozens of jobs.