Tableau is a data visualization software that allows users to easily create visualizations and dashboards from large datasets. It has grown significantly since being founded in 2003, now with over 2,400 employees and 10,000+ customers. Tableau's approach focuses on visual analytics using its proprietary VizQL language and an in-memory columnar database for fast performance. Its product suite includes Desktop for visualization creation, Server for web-based reporting, and Online/Public for cloud-based options. Tableau is known for its ease of use and support for various data sources and big data. However, it lacks some data transformation capabilities required for complex analysis.

1. Tableau Overview
Ten Tools for Ten Big Data Areas
Series 02 Big Data Visualization
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2. Ten Tools for Ten Big Data Areas – Overview
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10 Tools
10 Areas
Programming
SearchandIndex
First ETL fully on Yarn
Data storing platform
Data computing platform
SQL & Metadata
Visualize with just few clicks
Powerful as Java
Simple as Python
real-time
streaming
Made easier
Yours
Google
Lightning-fast cluster computing
Real-time distributed data store
High throughput
distributed messaging

3. Agenda
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About data visualization
2 About Tableau company and its approach
3 Tableau architecture, client, server components, tool overview
4 Tableau why and why not
5 Tableau job trend
1

4. Little About Data Visualization
• A graph is worth a thousand words
• The key to make sense of data is visualization
• Visualization make people see and understand data
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5. About Tableau Software Company
• Found in 2003
• 2014 revenue – US$412 million
• Average growth rate 10% per year
• Employee – 2400+
• Customers – 10,000+
• Partners – 500+
• Cover various business, industries and government organizations
including telecommunications, health care, financial and insurance
services.
• #1 for ease of use, fastest development times, and unmatched big
data visualization
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6. The Tableau’s Approach
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7. Tableau Core Technology
• Visual analytics
 Based on visual query language - VizQL
 Unifies computer graphics and databases
• In-memory data engine
 Column database technology
 Extremely optimized data extract format
• Live query engine
 Great support various database and data type
 Native support SPSS, SAS, R files
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8. Tableau Products v9.0 - Desktop
• Desktop tool to create data connection, visualization, chart,
dashboard
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9. Tableau Products v9.0 - Server
• Web-based reporting, data extract scheduling, sharing tools.
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10. Tableau Products v9.0 - Online
• Cloud-based BI and dashboard solution
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11. Tableau Products v9.0 - Public
• Free tool to publish and share the visualization on the cloud with
limit of data source format, storage
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12. Tableau Products v9.0 - Reader
• Free desktop tool to read and interact with the visualization of
tableau
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13. Why Tableau
• Various of visual analytics - forecast, group, tree maps, bubble
charts, dynamic maps, data blending, free form dashboard etc. with
great user experience.
• Fast visualization – parallelized dashboards, quick filters, data
engine and extract performance, fast calculations, performance
recorder.
• Support various of data source – salesforce.com, big data, API,
Google analytics and big query, etc.
• Business integration – javascript API, distributed data server,
auditing, security, mobile BI, self-BI, web-BI, etc.
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14. Why Tableau – Inspirational Samples
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15. Side Effect - When May Not To
• Little high price: 2000 a seat to start
• Lack of data shaping and transformation function, so it has to use
with other ETL tools
• Lack of semantic layers definition, so it leverages the mart/view in
the data source
• Lack of support of user defined function in the tool.
• Alternatives - MS SSRS/PowerBI, Microstrategy, QlikView, SAP BO,
D3 library
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16. Tableau Job Trends
Level Junior Level
(20%)
Middle Level
(40%)
Expert Level
(40%)
Position Report developer
Data analyst
Sr. BI developer BI consultant
Tableau consultant
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17. www.sparkera.ca
BIG DATA is not only about data,
but the understanding of the data
and how people use data actively to improve their life.