Datamax Jonesboro Arkansas 【Trusted】

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.

Using a car battery and a power inverter ripped out of a broken-down Datamax service van, Mark rigged a makeshift power supply. He then waded into waist-deep, 34-degree water holding a plastic tarp over the server rack to keep the dripping ceiling water off the electronics. datamax jonesboro arkansas

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. With the power out, the sump pump in the basement failed

That’s the story of Datamax Jonesboro—not a giant corporation, but a gritty local business that survived the death of the fax machine by being willing to get very, very wet. Using a car battery and a power inverter

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?!”

When the power finally returned, the plants were the first in Jonesboro to reopen. The rice mill’s owner later told a story at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce: “Datamax didn’t just sell us a service contract. They froze in a lake for us.” That ice storm changed Datamax forever. Mark (who was promptly promoted) convinced the owners that selling physical boxes—copiers and fax machines—was a dying industry. The future was managed IT services .