Tableau software is one of the most powerful data visualization tools that is developing and evolving with great speed. It is a tool in the Business Intelligence industry. In other words, what It does for users in this field is to classify and arrange very diverse data in a way that can be read, understood and analyzed by users.
It is very easy to analyze data using it. The software also provides data visualization to users in a format such as a dashboard or worksheet. The data categorized by Tableau can be read and understood by experts at all levels in all organizations. Of course, Tableau also allows its non-professional users to prepare dashboards based on the data they want.
Familiarity with some of the most important features of Tableau
The following are some of the most important features of it due to which this software has been able to attract a large number of viewers:
- Data Blending
- Real Time Analysis
- Collaboration of Data
One of the positive and very nice features about it software is that you do not need any programming skills or technical knowledge to work with this software.
It’s software has been able to attract many users among researchers, business owners and activists in various jobs due to its features and facilities in various industries and activities.
Collection of tabloid products
The Tableau Suite Product is generally as follows:
- Tableau Desktop
- Public
- Online
- Server
- Reader
To better understand the collection of it’s products and what happens through these products. It should be that in general, data analysis init is in two general ways:
1- Developer Tools
Developer tools that are for developing. Things like creating dashboards, spreadsheets, reporting, data visualization and the like. it’s products in this category are Desktop and Public.
2- Sharing tools
As the name of this category indicates, the purpose of these tools is to enable the sharing of tables, reports, dashboards, data visualization and other items created by it’s development tools. Products from the it’s product category that fall into this category are Online, Server and Reader.
Familiarity with Tableau products
Now that we understand what sections the Tableau collection is generally into and what is the function of each section in it. It is better to take a look at the descriptions of each product in the Tableau product collection and see what each of them does.
Tableau Desktop
In its desktop version, it has provided a huge set of tools and facilities for users to prepare reports and categorize information and data. From creating tables and reports to merging them together and arranging them in any way the user wants. All of these actions can be on the its Desktop.
In order for people to benefit from up-to-date data live, this desktop version of it has the ability to connect to analytical databases.
Therefore, workbooks and dashboards created by users in this situation have the ability to be published and shared, both locally and publicly.
Depending on whether you use its Desktop as a connection to the database or separately. This product is available in the following two versions:
Personal Desktop Tableau
where all workbooks and dashboards can be private and only for one user.
Tableau Professional Desktop
where all data and information can be shared with other users. This version of Tableau Desktop is actually the most complete version of this product, which has all the built-in features for Tableau Desktop.
Public Tableau
Another product whose name we saw earlier in the list of Tableau products was the general version of it or Public, and now we want to get a little more familiar with its features and goals.
It is clear that this version of Tableau is for more than one user to access the information and events in Tableau. Therefore, none of the changes made to its information can be locally.
Therefore, any changes made by each user to the information can be seen by others. This Tableau product is very suitable for beginners who are interested in learning how to work with Tableau. Anyone who downloads this version can easily access all the information that other people are working on.
This version is also used for times when people want to share information with a large number of people in public.
Tableau Server
Tableau Server is specially for use in organizations and companies. This tool, as described earlier, is in the category of Tableau sharing tools. Thus, in an organization, institution or company where a large number of employees need access to specific information, Tableau Server is used. Therefore, all workbooks and dashboards that were previously created in one of the desktop versions of Tableau will be visible and accessible by Tableau Server to other employees in that work environment.
To access the information shared by Tableau Server. Not all users and employees need to install a single set of copies of this product on their systems. Rather, all of them can enter the link created by Tableau Server at any time using their browser and use the information shared with them in Server with the help of their password and access permissions.
Tableau Server usually has an admin or main administrator. It has control over the entry and exit of all users and the registration and change of all data. It’s Server hardware and software are both maintained and supported by the organization or company that uses it.
Tableau Online
As the name implies, Tableau Online, like Tableau Server, is an environment for sharing information with other people. But what sets the two products apart is the server and hardware that was clouded online at Tableau and maintained and backed up by Tableau itself. Unlike the Tableau Server we mentioned. Its hardware is stored in the organization or company that intends to use this product.
Another difference between Tableau Online and Tableau Server is its unlimited storage space. Tableau Online has direct links to more than 40 Data Sources. Data sources such as MySQL, Hive, Amazon Aurora, Spark SQL and the like are hosted in the Cloud.
We now know very well that before using Tableau Server or Tableau Online. We need to prepare our data on Tableau Desktop and then share it with one of these two products.
Tableau Reader
Tableau Reader is a free tool for viewing information and reports on Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public. This way, it is not possible for the person using Tableau Reader to make changes to the information.
In fact, the tabloid user can only view or filter information and data to be displayed in the way he or she likes. But it is not allowed to do things like make changes to them or delete them and things like that.
So if you, as a report developer or dashboard creator in it. And you want to share it with people who just need to watch this information and should not be able to make changes to it. You need to get these people first. Have its Reader installed on their systems.
How does Tableau work with this wide range of products and tools?
In general, what it does with all its versions and products is that it can connect to different spaces and extract information from it and get output from them. In this way, the user of it can perform the desired set of activities with this information extracted and collected in it.
It can output any type of information from any platform you can imagine. From simple databases like Excel and PDF to complex and professional databases like Oracle or Cloud Databases like Amazon Web Service, Microsoft Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL and many more professional databases.
Its data connectors are ready to connect to any database the user wants. Of course, the amount of access and the number of these connectors also depends on the version of it installed on your system.
Compare Tableau with Excel
However, given all the benefits and points made about it. You now know very well that the behavior of these two tools is very different from data. But since both software deal with data and information, we may sometimes wonder which one is the most suitable option to use in our situation.
So we have to say that Excel in all its online, sharing and desktop versions. It can only display information on pages consisting of columns and rows.
Also, it can only display data written in columns and rows to its user by predefined charts and tables. Formulation in Excel is another challenge of this software for its user.
But it displays information in graphs, charts, tables, shapes, visual aids and many more. It can also explore the information in Excel with the possibility of drag and drop, or the famous Drag & Drop, and extract it for the user.
Benefits
In general, for the obvious advantages of this software, it should be:
- It is very easy to learn.
- Using it, reading and understanding information becomes easy.
- It has a very professional and pleasant appearance and work environment.
- Ability to connect to multiple databases simultaneously.
- Can also be used on mobile phones and mobile phones with small screens.
Disadvantages
- The costs required to access the advanced features and the ability to use all the conditions provided for this software are very high.
- After-sales support for it products is slightly weak.
- It operates poorly in terms of security and does not, in fact, have sufficient requirements to ensure that information is secure.
- In order to be able to use it in a professional team environment, it is necessary to allocate a separate IT team to support it.
- Older versions of it are very weak and do not support a lot of information. Although these issues have been fixed in newer versions. There are still those who use older versions. These versions still have their own users who, for some reason, have not been able to update.