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Regardless of what has happened in the past, MBNA was still a godsend to this state. They may not have lasted forever, but they did a tremendous job building infrastructure and world class facilities in this state, which has since attracted grreat companies into their former buildings adding great employment diversity. Back in the day, MBNA had over 7,000 employees in this state. The jobs (primarily call center) paid decently, as they were very generous with bonuses and incentives. Unfortunately, what most of Maine doesn't realize is that the world changes... when the credit card market got saturated, MBNA had to scale back.... then they were bought by Bank of America which scaled back operations in Maine signifigantly. That said, Bank of A still employees about 1,200 people at its ENORMOUS call center in Belfast, and some more people at another call center in Orono. All of the other former MBNA buildings around the state have since been taken over by other companies, creating far more job diversity than what MBNA brought into the state. Now we have Notify MD in Farmington, Boston Financial Data Services in Rockland, athenahealth in Belfast, and a whole slew of other companies, all in former MBNA buildings. These are all growing companies with a vested interest in this state now. Unfortunely Maine doesn't have the population density or the labor force to support an entire industry... thats why these companies are isolated and there's no other jobs to quickly replace then if they are lost. Take Belfast for instance. When a large chunk of the Bank of A workforce was laid off and one of the Belfast buildings was abandonned, there was nowhere else to work in the area. The call center was the main employment engine in the region. However, eventually athenahealth came in and took over one of the buildings. The company hasn't even been there 3 years and is probably already approaching 400 well paid employees. In the long run, the scaling back of Belfast by Bank of A ended up working to the town of belfast's favor... now we have competition in the labor force with both companies looking for quailty employees. Now all of a sudden, the people in the are have options. (Do I continue working at Bank of A, or try to advance my career at athenahealth?) They are 2 different industries, but employees at both companies develop skills that are desirable for both companies. This is AMAZING for the local economy of the town. I'm rambling on here, but the point I'm trying to make is it is not uncommon for companies to only stay in 1 place for 10 -15 years, then close shop and move elsewhere. Happens everywhere you go. Unfortunaly, due to Maines population density, when a company leaves, the communities feel the sting more because there aren't as many companies available to absorb laid off employees like there are in high population centers.
Good points. The other benefit is that you'll inevitably have a number of employees who work, say, at Carbonite for a period of time, and then break off to start their own small local business. This can be in the same industry, or something entirely different, probably something that the individual loves and wants to work at building a second career out of. If they do their homework, work hard and stick with it, then they may then begin employing other local residents, etc, etc. Free enterprise.
Even if the major employer is only active in an area for say, 8 or 10 years, you'll inevitably have these entrepreneurs strike off on their own with the start-up resources saved up and available due to the time they put in at another firm.
Granted, we would all love to see actual manufacturing industry come to town that actually produces a tangible product of some sort, but short of that, I think it is very beneficial to have a mix of soft and hard industry in any given region to the extent that it can be profitable. Municipalities love a broad range of industries in town that can provide stability to the tax base regardless of what particular company or sector is doing well or poorly at any given time. Sort of like having a mix of investments rather than a single stock in your portfolio.
Now, as for the pluses and minuses of cloud-based backup & storage. Many companies devote a fair amount of time creating and maintaining tiered backup strategies. These should always include multiple, redundant backups on site, as well as offsite, sequential backups. Having the capability to do the offsite storage automatically is a powerful tool many IT departments are readily investing in, rather than performing the DLT tape backups and hand-carrying it to another office or home at night. The cloud is here to stay for the long-term. Billions are being invested in it's practical implementation in day to day activities; and companies such as Carbonite were smart to leverage it to practical use early on, thus solving a headache for many IT departments, as well as individuals who want to have the safety of offsite storage. If you rely on your data, even at a basic level, and especially if your business depends on it, you really should have both an onsite, as well as an offsite backup strategy.
Having spent the past school year substitute teaching high school math and science, it is likely that 70,000 will continue to shrink. There seems to be very little interest in learning math or science these days. It's hard to compete with Facebook and video games. The State of Maine has done a wonderful job of expanding interest in these subjects by providing each student with a laptop computer. Total waste of money!
A very, very poor friend of DD's couldn't possibly have a laptop to use if they weren't available to students at school. Her parents' poor choices are not her fault and not something she can't control. There's no way she can buy a laptop. Thanks to laptops in the schools she's been accepted to a pre-vet program.
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Originally Posted by reloop
What You mean to tell me that I'm not the only parent who yells at my kid for surfing youtube, facebook, and Uncle Henrys when he's supposed to be practicing math or doing homework?!!!
No need to yell. Unplug the router and wait.... it won't take long.
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I'd just prefer that we put a whole LOT more people who don't have the capability to become *engineers* to work is all.
Absolutely. Everyone needs to do something productive and make a living for themselves.
A very, very poor friend of DD's couldn't possibly have a laptop to use if they weren't available to students at school. Her parents' poor choices are not her fault and not something she can't control. There's no way she can buy a laptop. Thanks to laptops in the schools she's been accepted to a pre-vet program.
No need to yell. Unplug the router and wait.... it won't take long.
Absolutely. Everyone needs to do something productive and make a living for themselves.
I'm being facetious. I do unplug the router.
I'm glad to see kids who can't afford them get them, but I think you'll find that the standards for use vary from area to area. In the more rural areas, I can see them being used more than the schools with more developed computer labs. A number of poorer students we've had have been given older model (but equally useful) laptops that have been replaced.
As far as carbonite, it's too bad they wouldn't go a little farther north than Lewiston because given the number of people I work with who commute for up to 2 hours to work in Bangor (depending) - I'd say they jobs are needed more up north than in the Lewiston area.
Last edited by cebdark; 05-31-2011 at 04:43 AM..
Reason: added
Now, as for the pluses and minuses of cloud-based backup & storage. Many companies devote a fair amount of time creating and maintaining tiered backup strategies. These should always include multiple, redundant backups on site, as well as offsite, sequential backups. Having the capability to do the offsite storage automatically is a powerful tool many IT departments are readily investing in, rather than performing the DLT tape backups and hand-carrying it to another office or home at night. The cloud is here to stay for the long-term. Billions are being invested in it's practical implementation in day to day activities; and companies such as Carbonite were smart to leverage it to practical use early on, thus solving a headache for many IT departments, as well as individuals who want to have the safety of offsite storage. If you rely on your data, even at a basic level, and especially if your business depends on it, you really should have both an onsite, as well as an offsite backup strategy.
Many people, businesses and individuals alike, fail to back up their data regardless of the easy methods available to them. When I was in the computer repair business, on more than one occasion I've been the recipient of a certain blank look after saying "OK, I've replaced the hard drive, reinstalled your operating system and apps. Where are your data back-ups?"
Carbonite is automated and simple, requiring the user to do nothing (which, when it comes to back-ups, is what they are often accustomed to doing so it works out well for them).
Plus, as has been pointed out, it is remote storage. Back-ups don't do any good if they are stored on-site and something disastrous happens, like your building burning down- which is something that has happened to at least one client of mine (I happened to be present at the time, the fire had started in the room where the computer was, I attempted to get in there but when I opened the door it flashed over and the room practically exploded with flames blowing out the doorway, all I could do was shut the door and retreat and call the FD...who arrived quickly enough that the worst of the damage was confined to that one room. All of the drives were ruined, the heat warped them...worst of all, after risking my neck to go in there, and getting the FD there quickly, I was berated for calling them- it turned out that the owner would have preferred for the building to have been a total loss).
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Originally Posted by Maine Writer
No need to yell. Unplug the router and wait.... it won't take long.
Absolutely. Everyone needs to do something productive and make a living for themselves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reloop
I'm being facetious. I do unplug the router.
You might be able to program the router to allow/restrict access to sites based on time/day.
To say Carbonite will not last based on what happened with MBNA is weak. Apples and oranges. MBNA was a credit card company, Carbonite is not. People thought Microsoft will not last back in the 80's.
MBNA bought and built or renovated high-end facilities in very expensive places. I remember when they built the fancy building next to Harbor Park in Rockland. It's right on the water, probably could not find a more expensive place if they tried. Buying and renovating the building in Camden was another one. The incredible facilty they built in Northport was amazing. I remember when they hosted the Maine state soccer championships there. The place was huge.
The property taxes alone for all these facilities was huge. Complete opposite for Carbonite in Lewiston. Who knows how long the company will last. Comparing them to MBNA just does not hold any water IMHO.
Glad to hear businesses have moved into the MBNA facility in Camden. Curious what has happened to their facility in Rockland. I heard they sold their sprawling campus in Northport.
I remember the last year we vended at the North Atlantic Blues Festival, next door the MBNA facility was already shut down. Parking was always tough and even tho the empty MBNA building had a huge parking lot they had security people guarding it so no one could use it.
Lewiston is still very depressed even when compared to Auburn their sister city across the river. Glad to hear any company is willing to move to there, every little bit helps.
To say Carbonite will not last based on what happened with MBNA is weak. Apples and oranges. MBNA was a credit card company, Carbonite is not. People thought Microsoft will not last back in the 80's.
MBNA bought and built or renovated high-end facilities in very expensive places. I remember when they built the fancy building next to Harbor Park in Rockland. It's right on the water, probably could not find a more expensive place if they tried. Buying and renovating the building in Camden was another one. The incredible facilty they built in Northport was amazing. I remember when they hosted the Maine state soccer championships there. The place was huge.
The property taxes alone for all these facilities was huge. Complete opposite for Carbonite in Lewiston. Who knows how long the company will last. Comparing them to MBNA just does not hold any water IMHO.
Glad to hear businesses have moved into the MBNA facility in Camden. Curious what has happened to their facility in Rockland. I heard they sold their sprawling campus in Northport.
I remember the last year we vended at the North Atlantic Blues Festival, next door the MBNA facility was already shut down. Parking was always tough and even tho the empty MBNA building had a huge parking lot they had security people guarding it so no one could use it.
Lewiston is still very depressed even when compared to Auburn their sister city across the river. Glad to hear any company is willing to move to there, every little bit helps.
To argue that Carbonite selling online back up systems will be a lasting company is VERY weak. We all witnessed the dot com era in the 90's. Carbonite doesn't make anything like Microsoft does so talk about apples and oranges!! Their service can be set up anyplace they want it to be. Any place there is high speed internet....like just about anywhere on the planet at this point. The minute there's a town or state that offers them a better deal on taxes or incentives they'll be gone. There is NOTHING to keep them in Maine. I would not bet my future on them being around while I pay a 30 year mortgage.
MBNA is a GREAT example. They were big man on campus with money to burn until something else came along and pulled the rug out from under them. You don't suppose someone else can invent a cheaper online back up service do you? My bet is there will soon be dozens of competing companies offering the same services for less( most likely off shore where labor is cheaper) in the near future and Carbonite will be a memory in five years. ....gee that's kind of what happened to MBNA!!! To think otherwise is to reject history and amounts to wishful thinking in a desperately poor state. A place where ANY job is a good job no matter how long it lasts. I was not implying the jobs are not welcome I'm just saying I don't see them as having any longevity.
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You mean to tell me that I'm not the only parent who yells at my kid for surfing youtube, facebook, and Uncle Henrys when he's supposed to be practicing math or doing homework?!!!
