Switching Is Easier than You Think

Switching solvers may seem like a daunting task, but it’s typically straightforward. New customers regularly tell us migrating was easier than they expected, and that they are happy they made the switch to Gurobi. On the Gurobi Product Overview page, we mention four things we do to make it easy to get started with Gurobi:

• Provide a wide range of interfaces, so you can work in the environment you are most comfortable with
• Keep the interfaces simple and intuitive to reduce your learning curve
• Include Quick Start and Reference Guides, and Video Overviews on using the Gurobi Optimizer
• Provide support for both MPS and LP file formats

You may also be interested in learning about our Gurobi Python modeling and development environment. The Gurobi Python Environment combines the benefits a modeling language with the strengths of a programming language. By embedding our set of high-level optimization modeling constructs in the very popular Python programming language, we’ve eliminated the need to choose between working in just a modeling language or just a programming language.

Three Steps to Migration

No matter what programming language you use, you’ll need to consider three points when starting a migration effort:

1. Building the model: How do I build my optimization model? Do I build it one constraint at a time, or do I build an entire constraint matrix?
2. Setting solver parameters: What solver parameters do I change? What effects are these changes intended to produce?
3. Computing and extracting the solution: Am I looking for an optimal solution, or just a good feasible solution? How do I extract the solution produced by the solver? Do I extract the solution one variable at a time, or do I extract the entire solution vector?

Each of these points are discussed in more detail on the switching from CPLEX™ and the switching from XPRESS™ pages. You can also learn more about switching within a modeling language, switching from OPL, and read about open source software and solvers.

“Switching to, and working with, the team from Gurobi has been a great experience. Their solver has met our high expectations, and the support they provide has been fantastic.”

Michael North
Sr. Director, NFL