Why We're Building a Box: The Case for an On-Prem Shop Server in 2026

Shop software is moving one way. Epicor's final on-prem Kinetic release is expected around January 2028, with active support ending December 31, 2029, and new development going cloud-only. ECI runs JobBOSS² cloud-first and describes its on-prem option as for businesses unable to move. Fulcrum is cloud-only. So it's fair to ask why a new company would build a physical box.

The short answer: several kinds of shops kept telling us they wanted one, and the reasons held up when we checked them. We're building the Shop Server: the whole Traveler system on a small fanless box in your building, bought once, owned outright. It's pre-launch and planned to ship after Traveler Cloud. This post explains who it's for, what it costs, and what we won't claim about it.

Defense and ITAR subcontractors. If your drawings are CUI, any cloud service that stores them falls under DFARS 7012's FedRAMP Moderate equivalency rule: a third-party assessment, full evidence, no open findings, and SOC 2 doesn't count. Cloud that meets that bar is expensive. ProShop's FedCloud is $37,870 a year for 10 users, and GCC High runs about $60–93 per user per month. A box on your own network isn't an external cloud provider, so for your shop system that question goes away. The box is still in your CUI scope, and it has to be secured like everything else.

Shops being pushed off on-prem. Epicor Kinetic on-prem users have a deadline, and JobBOSS² and E2 users are being steered toward the cloud. Some of them are fine with that. Others chose on-prem on purpose and would like to keep it that way.

Owners who don't want to rent. Subscription fatigue is real and well documented: one tracker measured SaaS inflation at 12.3% year over year in 2025, and 79% of IT leaders in a 2026 survey had seen increases at renewal. Some shops also have internet that drops often enough to make a cloud-only floor system a risk.

The Shop Server is $4,250 one-time: a fanless box running the full Traveler system with unlimited users and 12 months of updates included. An optional $59/month continuity plan covers ongoing updates and offsite backup after that.

The Shop Server Defense edition is $6,500 one-time, for shops with CUI. It's designed to add mirrored SSDs and a small UPS, an encrypted USB backup drive with keys you hold, a hardened FIPS-mode configuration, an 800-171 control mapping and SSP template excerpt, and support from US persons only. Its optional continuity plan is $99/month.

Hardware for a box like this realistically costs $600–900 once you include a mirrored SSD, TPM, backup drive, and UPS, and memory prices are going up: one 16GB mini PC went from $159 to $247 in January 2026. We've priced for that. Appliance companies like Home Assistant and Synology have shown a model that works: sell good hardware, and make the ongoing service optional instead of required.

No box can get a shop certified under CMMC, and no software meets ITAR for you. Certification and export compliance belong to your organization, its policies, and its people. What we'll say is narrower and true: the Shop Server is designed to keep CUI and technical data off third-party clouds and to support your NIST SP 800-171 controls.

We also won't make the compliance case until the features behind it exist. That means FIPS-validated encryption, MFA, audit logs, backup keys you hold, and remote support that only happens when you approve it. The ownership pledge and our ITAR and CMMC wording are getting a legal review before launch. On timing: CMMC Phase 2 has been suspended since July 13, 2026, pending review, but DFARS 7012, NIST 800-171 Rev 2, and SPRS scores still apply. We lead with those because they're what's actually in contracts. Check dodcio.defense.gov for the current CMMC status.

If you don't handle CUI, have reliable internet, and nobody in the shop wants responsibility for a box, Traveler Cloud at $109/month is the better choice. Over five years it's $6,540, and if you'd keep the box's continuity plan, the Shop Server costs more over the same period. We did the math in our guide on perpetual license vs subscription, and you can run your own numbers at /tools/cloud-vs-on-prem-cost.

A box is also a responsibility. Someone has to keep it powered, locked up, and backed up. If that's not realistic for your shop, a good cloud service is safer than a neglected server.

Reservations are a free form with no deposit, at /shop-server, which also has the specs, the security design, and the ownership pledge. Defense shops can start with /for/defense-subcontractors or /for/cmmc-machine-shops. If you're leaving Epicor on-prem, see /compare/epicor-kinetic-on-prem-alternative.