Like many other people managing Epicor 10 / Kinetic and the future of on-premise installations and the Classic client are always on my mind. Balancing being on a “supported” ERP system to maintain security certifications + losing MS SQL DB access + substantial customisation uplifts + the entire project of becoming solely Kinetic Web are causing a bit of “analysis paralysis”.
This leads me on to considering Epicor’s “Support Lifecyle Stages”, which to me seem short considering this is an ERP system and the costs and effort involved with upgrades (but most being honest all ERP vendors work to the same cadence now don’t they). And I wish it wasn’t the case but contemplating being on “Sustaining Support”, through choice, then comes into the equation and makes decisions even more complex.
I’ve no doubt that many Epicor customers are on Sustaining Support, for so many reasons, and many will still be running Epicor 10. So I’m thinking about whether or not Sustaining Support is really something to be fearful of?
In recent years I’ve really not heard of any major / show stopping issues with Epicor 10 or Kinetic on-premise, certainly not the pains of going from Vantage 8 to Epicor 9 and the problems with the substantial architectural change under the hood. So, should we be fearful of Sustaining Support if we’re on a solid release like later Epicor 10’s or 11’s, are there any horror stories that users have? (and for me personally, at my current employer, we will have to be on it until at least summer 2028).
Long story short, no. Especially if you’re on later versions of 10.x. 10.x is highly stable and like E9 will run for decades.
It’s all about the company risk tolerance. When you’re on active support you transfer some risk to Epicor. In reality nowadays that’s not true. They no longer provide fixes even for versions on active support. They tell you “upgrade”. So it’s not like active support is getting you much. But checking that “we are on active support” box for some companies is worth not getting anything except a box checked.
This seemed to be the direction of travel in the late 2010’s, and it’s sad to see that it’s gotten worse, but when on-premise is deemed to be moribund by Epicor it’s to be expected
My opinion is there is no risk to being on sustaining support. I have seen the same level of support. That being said, not sure what Epicor’s direction is, as they might choose to stop being so supportive of older versions, but that has not been my experience yet.
So one concrete difference is that in the case of system down, you can pick up the phone and call support if you are on active support (note: that does not mean they will ANSWER the phone, ask me how I know). If you are on sustaining, you can only file a ticket through epiccare.
That said I agree with the above comments, its of essentially zero value (and maybe negative value) to upgrade to remain on active support at this point given the stability of the older releases vs. the major breaking changes in every newer release.
@Fatboy40 I concur with the others above, Active Support doesn’t mean what it used too so as long as you executives are willing then you should be fine to stay on the version of your choice.
The trouble, for some businesses, is that it goes beyond that if you’re certifying to strict security and technology standards that are independently audited.
Many of these of these class “Unsupported Software”, that then needs to be isolated from production networks etc., as software that no longer receives “Security Updates” and Epicor’s Sustaining Support means that Kinetic etc. then becomes Unsupported Software
I would look closely at the documents before jumping to that conclusion. Sustaining support IS still support. The issue most people run into is EOL for SQL Server/Windows not Kinetic itself if the version you are on is too old to support a current MS stack. But that would have to be a very old version.
I think the concerns raised here are completely understandable. ERP upgrades are not simple “click a button” exercises, especially for companies with significant customization, compliance requirements, Classic client dependencies, or long-established on-premise infrastructure.
That said, I would be cautious about viewing Sustaining Support as meaning Epicor has abandoned a customer or the product. The practical risk depends on the version, security and certification requirements, customization level, and each organization’s tolerance for older technology.
It is also important to distinguish between “not every issue is back-ported to every release” and “Epicor does not provide fixes.” Epicor continues to produce patches for legal, regulatory, and security issues. At the same time, Kinetic continues to receive new capabilities across planning, financials, browser-based administration, automation, integrations, and AI. Thousands of customers remain on active support in the Epicor Cloud, where the platform is continuously maintained and enhanced.
None of that invalidates the concerns of on-premise customers. The cost and effort of moving from a stable, heavily customized environment can be substantial. Sustaining Support should not automatically be treated as a crisis, but it should be evaluated against each company’s certification obligations, security policies, integrations, customizations, required functionality, and long-term technology strategy. For some organizations, remaining on a stable release is reasonable; for others, staying current or moving to the cloud may justify the investment.
A lot of this comes down to how comfortable you are supporting the software yourself. As others have stated, some of the older versions are very stable.
I would consider how often you are reaching out to support currently when making this decision. I know for us, the last case I opened was a year and a half ago and most of my cases were not getting resolution through support (I tend to find way more help and answers here), so for us, transitioning to sustaining support really didn’t change anything at all. That being said, if you tend to use Epicor support often and they are helpful, going onto sustaining support may not be the best option, as the answer is always going to be to upgrade.
I will echo @aosemwengie1’s concern and say that while the ERP system is stable, the environment it runs on will become unstable sooner. Running on older versions of Windows, DOTNET, and SQL Server will eventually fall out of support and will no longer receive security patches. In the new era of AI bug-finding, older versions of software will become easy pickings. Even if MS provides patches, they will come after supplying the current versions. If you plan on staying put, get to the most recent supported MS stack to extend the usage time safely.
This is the main point I see and all the cybersecurity risks coming for running old versions of windows, .NET, libraries that 10 is utilizing, etc… Log4 comes to mind, etc.
The other thing is @Fatboy40 you can choose to only take the yearly upgrades on active support which again will deliver some amount of instability because it’s new, but once you find a stable version and release, you can sit on that and turn off the updates and stay in maintenance mode or whatever for 12-18 months depending on whether you pay for flex. I know I’m butchering the nomencalture…
If you’re on older 10.x that use .NET full framework, Microsoft hasn’t put a EOL on .Net 4.8 yet. It will be a while before they do I bet. Given the dependency on full framework in Windows.
Right now with the plethora of tools available to help you, if you are on sustaining support and you can’t get support, or are not in a position to upgrade, then you can always develop your way around the problem. The more concerning issue is if the framework or platform it runs on is no longer supported. Evaluating the risks for the business is the key, and what the acceptable amount is correct for said business.
