Datamax Jonesboro Arkansas May 2026

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.”

The interesting twist? They didn’t fire their copier repairmen. They retrained them. 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. Today, Datamax in Jonesboro is a regional powerhouse

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. They retrained them

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 .

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.