New capabilities enhance data preparation, extend data source connectivity, and improve scalability while maintaining strict data governance

Tableau Software, the leading analytics platform, announced the general availability of Tableau 2020.3, which delivers the ability for customers to output to and update external databases directly from Tableau Prep Builder, expanding the Tableau platform to serve a broader set of data preparation needs. The latest release also includes new tools for Tableau administrators to simplify the distribution of product licenses to various groups in their organization. Customers can instantly access these features, as well as new integrations with leading database providers, by upgrading to Tableau 2020.3. For more information on the latest features and to upgrade to Tableau 2020.3.

“The new capabilities in Tableau 2020.3 continue to extend the breadth and depth of the entire Tableau platform, helping customers to easily scale their analytics further than ever before,” said Francois Ajenstat, chief product officer at Tableau Software. “By introducing the ability to write to an external database, Tableau Prep can now be used for analytics use cases outside of the Tableau platform, from data science to data governance.”

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Data Preparation Beyond Tableau

With the introduction of the new Write to Database feature in Tableau Prep Builder, customers are now able to make their data preparation process more governed and scalable, as well as more deeply integrated with the rest of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Customers can store cleaned and prepared data from Tableau Prep Builder in a on-premises or cloud-based database to ensure organizational governance while still making the data immediately available for analysis in Tableau. By storing the data in a database, the same clean datasets can be leveraged by any other application connected to that database, including advanced machine learning or data mining applications. This new tool utilizes the drag-and-drop, visual experience that Tableau customers know and love, and makes it simple for anyone to publish a data flow to their database without complex coding or third-party tools. Customers who also use Tableau Data Management will be able to automatically add their outputs to their Tableau Catalog, where they can track lineage and impact, add metadata, and add data quality warnings. These tables are then searchable in Tableau, making it simple to deploy clean data across the whole organization.

“Over the past several years, Tableau’s continued accomplishments show that the company has a pulse on what their customers need, as well as how the data and BI market is evolving. The features introduced in Tableau 2020.3 continue this history of well-reasoned engineering and help to create a true data-first mentality for customers,” said Brad Shimmin, Chief Analyst, AI Platforms, Data and Analytics analyst at Omdia. “The new ‘write to database’ feature built into Tableau Prep gives customers the opportunity to prep their data earlier on in the value chain, further powering data democratization across the organization.”

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Simplified Enterprise Administration

Tableau 2020.3 introduces new tools for Tableau administrators to easily and securely deploy the analytics platform across the enterprise, including improvements to licensing management and mobile device management. New mobile apps for iOS, Blackberry, and Android provide a quick and secure way to view, analyze and leverage the data across the organization. Administrators are now able to utilize the new grant license on sign in feature to designate team members to be automatically granted a license and role (Viewer, Explorer, or Creator) with their first log-in to their Tableau account. By assigning roles to users prior to their log-in, admins can save valuable time previously spent issuing one-off Tableau licenses, or disconnecting and shuffling licenses between users as organizational needs change.

Complex Analysis Made Easy

Tableau 2020.3 also adds new features that make complex analytics, such as predictions or spatial joins, easier for all customers. New predictive modeling functions that are built into the familiar table calculation process eliminate the need for third-party extensions or complex coding in R or Python. Now, customers can build and update predictive models that help them to better understand relationships within their data and make projections about their data, without leaving the Tableau platform. A new “IN” operator for calculations simplifies the task of comparing a large list of values, testing if a specified value is present within a set, comma-separated list, or combined fields. Users are also now able to more easily analyze spatial data with the new spatial file union, combining different geographic data within the same administrative level or comparing data from the same location over a period of time.

Tableau 2020.3 also broadens the connectivity of the Tableau platform through the introduction of Connectors to the Tableau Extension Gallery, a new collection of partner-built integrations that let customers access data sources in addition to those natively supported by Tableau. Partners including Actian, Dremio, Elasticsearch, Ocient, Qubole, SQream, and Yellowbrick have built connectors that are immediately available and provide a more performant connection to these databases. In addition to the third-party connectors in the gallery, 2020.3 also adds an improved native connector to SAP HANA that includes the ability to connect to HANA Table Functions.

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