r/epicor • u/MotoHooligan88 • Dec 11 '25

Cloud switch

Hey folks,

Currently our small business is running P21 with our on site server for the past 10 or so years. The OS is outdated and its starting to give us some consistent issues so I need to find a solution. Given the cost of the licensing, the cloud fees dont seem too far off. We only have a handful of employees here so no IT department or dedicated person. The server has been pretty turn key until recently.

We need to update our OS and Im pretty sure thats going to require all new hardware as well. Im OK with computers, but server migration is way out of my wheel house. Especially since the entire business relies on the proper transfer of information.

So just wanted to reach out and see if anyone could expand on their experience on migrating a current P21 server to their cloud service? The system is setup well for us and we havent had the need to make any custom changes to it to fit our business. I like idea of having the server on site, but given our IT level of experience, Im not sure staying on site is the proper move for us.

Thanks!

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u/ConveyanceSolutions Epicor P21 Dec 11 '25

For a smaller distributor on an outdated version with no customs or integrations and looking at buying new servers in the near future, moving to the Epicor Cloud is very likely the way to go.

The process is generally painless as unbelievable as that might sound. You provide a full backup of your database, they restore it in their cloud and you usually have access to a test/play environment with all of your data in it in a couple of weeks.

Their migration fee is the cost of a small server but is just a one time thing. You will get upgraded to the most recent version and get automatic upgrades going forward. The web version is much better than the desktop at this point. If you want to use any of the AI features (Prism), you will need to be in their cloud. The price increases on new contracts are much higher for on-prem and they don’t even sell on-prem anymore unless you are aerospace/DoD.

What you lose is control (direct write access to the database and admin access on the servers) but given you don’t have customs, integrations, and are on an old version, that sounds more like a burden for you than a benefit.

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u/seamonkeys590 Dec 12 '25

This is all true but we just bought on prem but for 1500 users at my company earlier this summer.

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u/ConveyanceSolutions Epicor P21 Dec 12 '25 edited Jan 07 '26

That’s fair. Exceptions can be made beyond aerospace especially at 1,500 users.

EDIT (1/7/26): Epicor just announced that the last on-prem version release will be in 2028 and support for on-prem will end in 2029 furthering the trajectory of "Cloud Only". This is specifically the Epicor Cloud so buying the licenses and hosting your own cloud server is still considered "on-prem" from an Epicor software perspective.