Tableau Expands Mobile, Web Capabilities Of Its Data Visualization App

business analytics and visualization software

Tableau is something of a rising star among the new generation of business analytics software developers to emerge in recent years.

The new release, Tableau 8.0, which has been undergoing beta testing by some 4,000 customers since November, is slated to be generally available later this week.

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"This is a big release," said Francois Ajenstat, Tableau's product management director, noting in an interview that Tableau 8.0 has more than 90 new features. The company also has updated Tableau Public, the free version of the product, with the same new visualization and analytical capabilities.

Tableau relies on the channel for a portion of its sales, including solution providers that resell the software, ISVs that embed it within their products, and consulting partners. "This is obviously a very important and growing part of our businesses," Ajenstat said.

The new Web authoring tools allow developers to build browser-based data visualization applications that the company said supports queries to a depth not previously available. The mobile authoring capabilities likewise provide a way for developers to build drag-and-drop analysis applications for tablet devices.

The 8.0 release incorporates a new visualization engine that Ajenstat said "takes advantage of advancements in the computer graphics industry" and speeds up the process of creating visual representations of data. New data models such as "treemaps" and bubble charts enhance the software's forecasting capabilities.

Tableau's software already works with a broad range of data sources, Ajenstat said, including most major relational databases such as the Oracle database and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as the Hadoop big data platform. Tableau 8.0 adds connectors for accessing data in Google Big Query, Google Analytics and Salesforce.com applications.

Also new is a Javascript API developers can use to integrate Tableau with Java applications and a Data Extract API for integrating Tableau with custom data sources.

PUBLISHED MARCH 21, 2013