What is Tableau?

What is Tableau?

If we observe the world after the 21^st century, we can all say that the amount of data used, converted, created is increasing day by day. This is true because the use of the internet and the availability of the Internet for everything is making this happen even more. IBM says that a minimum of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is created each day. Wherein only 0.5% of this data created is explainable and analyzed which can be truly used. And analyzing such a huge amount of data is a monotonous, complex and intricate job. Hence, companies and businesses are influenced by BI tools to help them reveal vital business requirements.

Even if today, there are various businesses involved in data visualisation & business intelligence tools – Tableau is proved itself in being the best amongst them from the time it is been invented. So, in this blog, we will walk through everything related to Tableau and help you understand its importance from the career point of view.

Before moving ahead with what is Tableau, let us first know the importance of Data visualization in today data science growing world.

Data visualization is a tool used by all data scientists which help them communicate with their end-users or clients. The result of all the data interpretation is not immediately coherent to the users who do not directly deal with the data. Data visualization acts like that connectivity point and makes users appreciate the occurrence of the data analysis. And, Tableau is one of the best Data visualization software/tools which is used by every other business now.

So proceeding further towards the next question is –

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a visual analytics program modifying the way we use data to solve problems by enabling oneself and businesses to make the most of their data. It can perform tasks like:

• Tracking budgeting expense
• Sales data analysis
• User density monitoring
• Categorizing and sub-categorizing data
• Consumer segmenting

Why Tableau?

Depth of discovery:

The characteristics of Tableau give users ways to solve all the problems as they examine data visualizations. And the answer can confer the basic trends as foresight, use ‘what if’ queries to improve and manage data hypothetically and visualize the segments of data dynamically for analysing.

Apt visualization:

Tableau is a bridge to various data sources which is used to visualize huge data sets. In Tableau, you can directly select the data and switch them between visualizations in one go. It is the easiest task to move between visualizations in Tableau. It indeed visualizes the data from the start by enabling the consequences there itself. Tableau adapts similarities with the use of labels, size, colour, shapes and more – to provide you with the meaning as you dig deeper and explore more.

Data source connectors:

Tableau is one such software/tool which provides n-number of primary connectors to effectively cleanse, pull & associate data from completely any source without creating any custom code.

And some of the advanced features of Tableau are given below:

• Data Blending
• Data Collaboration
• Real-time Analysis
• Highlight & filtering data
• Drag-and-drop, toggle view
• Adding comments to dashboards
• Dashboard sharing
• Updating feature
• Translating queries to visualizations
• Can work with it without prior technical knowledge about it

Tableau: Uses & Applications

There are many different engaging options, applications and alternatives of the tableau. The short placement creates the setup in no time as this tool promotes running start benefits. Tableau provides perceptive industry rate with clouds hosted editions and also on-premise paid annually. But, this module price depends on the number of users requirements. Now, let us study the different products of this software & its end-users.

Tableau Desktop:

Tableau Desktop is specially designed to help you create dashboards and reports on the Tableau Server & works in combination with all the system browsers. Creating charts, reports and more are also done with the Tableau desktop. It enables you to communicate with different data types and convert them into readable Tableau reporting. Even with mobile gadgets, we can access Tableau visualization and Tableau dashboard easily. Also, established on the state to the data resources, Tableau desktop is further categorized into two parts:

Personal Tableau Desktop:

Personal version access to Tableau is quite limited. It holds the workbook private which cannot be accessed or published online. Also, its advanced opinions are alike to the Tableau desktop. Hence, it is divided either into Tableau offline or Tableau public categories.

Professional Tableau Desktop:

This is the best version of all kinds of professional work done on Tableau Servers whose working is very similar to that of Tableau desktop. The only difference is the online publication provided by Tableau desktop. In this version, you can have access to any kind of data, from anywhere.

Tableau Online

The official Tableau server examines & manages all the access to the servers with permission to all the different data sources. It has a feature named Tableau group which stores the data on the server hosts on the cloud and manages its functions. It also helps in managing data security, implementation of Tableau products and more.

Tableau Reader:

This is the tool that is free of cost which allows customization, edition of any type of data created using Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public. Using Tableau Readers, you can simply view the workbooks and visualizations as well.

The only necessary thing is that the received or the destination user should have a Tableau reader to get access to the documents.

Tableau Public:

Tableau public is the best version which is specially developed for cost-effective users. The workbooks created are not saved in this public version of Tableau. Anyone can take access, download access without any efforts. Users willing to learn Tableau or like to share their data with the public can use this version.

Tableau Server:

This version is used to share visualizations created using desktop applications beyond the business. For sharing dashboards on the server, it is required to publish work on the Tableau desktop. This will be accessible only to the licensed users after the data is been uploaded to the server.

Tableau Working

The primary purpose of Tableau is to find and extract data that is stored in various places. It possibly pulls the data from any platform and this process can get quoted to the Tableau data desktop or engine. Also, these data engines work with the data and develop visualizations and dashboards. And this is how the data is analyzed as well.

Static files are used by the users shared after creating the customized worksheets. And these worksheets and dashboards are received by the users who view this file using Tableau reader. This Tableau desktop data can be accessed to all the Tableau servers which allow its end-users to have a more satisfying experience in accessing the files and data from all the locations from any devices, gadgets and more.

Tableau Vs Excel

Tableau & Excel are both known data analysis tools with some unique features especially when it comes to data exploration. Tableau works with the drag and drops feature whereas Excel works with rows and columns, represented using spreadsheets. But Tableau represents everything from images to any kind of data in a simple and readable format.

Sr. No	TABLEAU	EXCEL
1.	Tableau is a data visualization tool/software which is used to represent data into a table or in image format	Excel is a spreadsheet that is designed using rows and columns
2.	Readable, Easy to use	Need some coding to represent data with real-time data visualization
3.	Can pull multiple data at a time	Can access single data at a time
4.	Focuses on user interactivity to explore the data	Focuses on calculations

Advantages of Tableau

Interactive Visualizations

Concentrating on visualization, Tableau offers prompt perspicacity with easy drag and drop features, helping you to easily analyse the key data and share the critical perspicacity.

User Friendly

When compared with all the other BI tools and software in the marketplace, Tableau provides the best features which make it easy to create and customize the data visualization in no time.

Electronic Gadget Friendly

Tableau dashboards can be accessed, operated and viewed on any mobile device, tablets and more. It automatically understands that the device from which you are accessing the data and adjusts its configuration accordingly.

Easily Integrated with Scripting Languages

With basic calculations, complex calculations can also be done using Tableau. This is the only BI tool that allows you to integrate with Python, R and many other scripting languages which indeed helps in data analysing.

Inserting Datasets

Whether it is an excel spreadsheet or any database, using Tableau you can easily insert new datasets whenever necessary. These datasets will then blend themselves into Tableau automatically using the necessary fields.

Key Takeaway

To date and in the coming future, Tableau will be the number one data visualization & business intelligence software or tool present in the marketplace. And it is been used by around 90% of businesses around the world. Also, it allows its users to access a reliable tech support team and then automate data updates to help organizations get fresh data within seconds. With the help of online Tableau training, you will explore your skill easily.

Enroll on Tableau training at 3RI Technologies.