Azure Analysis Services vs. IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio

Microsoft Azure Analysis Services is best tool which is well suited for many type of scenarios. Like if the organization is dealing with a lot of critical data and need some better analysis and insights for that data then tool serves the best. It helps in depth analysis and getting the desired result which helps in making big decision for any organization. We can create role based access for sensitive data hence it is very helpful for security point of view. Helps in making the business more productive and taking decision based on facts. It is less appropriate for scenarios like where data amount is less and the solution is very costly and someone can get a cheaper solution. Also not suited for environment where user directory do not exist because without the help of user directory role could not be created hence proper utilization of this tool will not be possible.

Incentivized

In my opinon, if the problem is less than 5000 variables, one should try to solve with free available solver rather than directly going for a commercial license of IBM CPLEX Optimization Studio. In my opinion, if the priority is not in terms of solving time with higher number of variables, even then one can go for free solvers like CBC, IPOPT, SCIP. In my opinion, if priority is solving time and number of variables is also high, only in that case one should prefer going for a commercial license.

• You can import data from various sources (i.e. Oracle, Azure SQL...)
• You can store data models
• You can elaborate data and create insights
• Perfect integration with Excel and Power BI

Incentivized

• Linear Programming
• Mixed-Integer Linear Programming
• Non-Linear Convex-Optimization
• Visualization
• Shadow Price Analysis
• Parameter Tuning

• Microsoft Azure Analysis Services is very costly solution and in that price we can get some better business intelligence tool with lot more of capabilities
• The dashboard or we can say user interface is complex and need time to understand and gain expertise in order for proper working.
• It needs continuation monitoring which is sometime a big task.
• Sometime, the tool shows unusual behavior and become unstable, so we need to clear temp files for proper functioning.

Incentivized

• Data handling from different sources like Note Pad, etc.
• Large size of MILP problems.
• Various parameters to set.

It's nice to use and with good optimization.

Honestly, to say, I never contacted CPLEX but used its forum to know/clarify any issues I faced.

We have used the IBM cloud which was truly a specific nightmare for our team. User experience, layout, and design is big for us as it understandably is with many people. Even if any type of program can technically do all that we need it to, we still found our team will not be as motivated or satisfied using it compared to something more visually appealing and smooth.

Incentivized

Compared with MATLAB, CPLEX is a more user-friendly and simpler structure for writing models. This one also has a good return on investment.

• Website analytics; We have realized so many benefits like traffic analysis, CRM, click-through funnels, and many more.
• Aas allows us to do complex calculations and aggregations at slight efforts. It accommodates DAX expression, which in return is simple to apply.

Incentivized

• Better for price.
• Many model parameters/features.
• No visualization.