Question 1

What is Ceris?

Accepted Answer

Ceris is serverless optimization infrastructure. It lets you solve scheduling, portfolio, and resource allocation problems via a single API call — no solver license, no infrastructure to manage, and no OR team required. You get production-grade results in seconds and pay only for compute used.

Question 2

Do I need a commercial solver license?

Accepted Answer

No. Ceris runs HiGHS and OR-Tools, which are free, open-source, production-grade solvers. They handle the vast majority of optimization problems — portfolio allocation, scheduling, supply chain, resource planning — without a commercial license. If you already have a Gurobi license, you can bring it for additional solver options.

Question 3

How does serverless optimization work?

Accepted Answer

Submit your optimization problem via REST API. Ceris routes it to the best available solver, handles burst compute and parallelization, and returns results with a full audit trail. No servers to provision, no cold starts to tune, no infrastructure to maintain.

Question 4

What problems can Ceris solve?

Accepted Answer

Ceris handles linear programming (LP) and mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems including portfolio optimization, workforce scheduling, resource allocation, supply chain planning, energy dispatch, and production scheduling. If your problem can be expressed as an optimization model, Ceris can solve it.

Question 5

How is Ceris different from Nextmv?

Accepted Answer

Nextmv provides DevOps tooling for teams that already have solver access and OR expertise — model hosting, testing, versioning. Ceris solves the access problem: it gives you production-grade optimization without needing a solver license, infrastructure, or dedicated OR team. Ceris also focuses on general optimization (scheduling, portfolio, allocation) rather than routing specifically.

Writing