On the Evolution of Optimization Modeling Systems

We do not feel that the linear programming user’s most pressing need over the next few years is for a new optimizer that runs twice as fast on a machine that costs half as much (although this will probably happen). Cost of optimization is just not the dominant barrier to LP model implementation. The process required to manage the data, formulate and build the model, report on and analyze the results costs far more, and is much more of a barrier to effective use of LP, than the cost/performance of the optimizer.