Tableau gains new big data analytics features

Salesforce today debuted new features in Tableau, including data and analytics platform capabilities available with new enterprise subscription plans. Key enhancements and improvements focus on managing data and enabling scalable data governance, as well as ensuring that analytics adapts with changing demand.

“Tableau has long been a favorite to help individuals see and understand data,” Francois Ajenstat, chief product officer at Tableau, said. “We’re making it easier for IT leaders to make it a favorite across the entire enterprise and deliver an end-to-end solution to leverage the full power of data analytics.”

Big data analytics

The pandemic has underscored the need to increase data self-sufficiency. According to McKinsey, 92% of companies are failing to scale analytics. And new data from MuleSoft and Coleman Parkes Research found that 87% of IT and business leaders are concerned that security and governance are slowing the pace of innovation.

Among the features heading to the latest version of Tableau (2021.3) are revamped data prep tools, which make it easier for customers to reduce loads and server costs automatically while mapping out data trends. New governance features alert users of potential issues and provide visibility into the type of data they have, and where it came from. And enhanced management controls let admins centrally configure which users and groups have access to which slices of data.

A new enterprise reference architecture, Enterprise Deployment Guidelines, provides customers with an approach to achieve basic availability, scalability, and security requirements. Meanwhile, dynamic scaling and resource management — which are also new — helps enterprises define limits on resources for their deployments, ensuring that enough software containers are available during peak-demand times and scale down during low demand.

Doug Henschen, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research, said, “IT leaders are facing unprecedented challenges today, and the pandemic has underscored the need to increase data self-sufficiency and empower everyone to do more with data. It’s no longer a luxury for businesses to have a data analytics platform, it’s a necessity that could make the difference between surviving and thriving.”

The new features arrive after Tableau added improved AI and analytics capabilities, including an input experience designed to guide users on how to ask questions of data. Earlier in the year, Tableau gained an Einstein Discovery module, which uses machine learning algorithms to surface patterns in data.