Tableau 8.0 is awesome

2013-04-20 18:55:19 +0000

After setting up our in-house analytics in Tableau 7, let me tell you how intuitive Tableau 8 has made the back-end work. 

Our main dashboards used to rely on this ugly mess of a master MySQL table to drive everything; When I say mess, I mean it. The table consisted of several blocks of information, each of which should have been its own SQL table. But Tableau 7’s data blending left a lot to be desired, so here we were. 

The result was slow rendering and not very flexible reporting. We were pretty limited to providing WYSIWYG reporting to our end-users, not letting them harness the power of Tableau at all.

Tableau 8 changed all that, making linking various data sources on the fly in Desktop a breeze. Now we are able to have a properly normalized SQL structure, each piece of information in its logical place. Additionally, we can now give end-users the power to choose how and what they want to look at.

So far, the only drawback I can see in Tableau 8, is we still cannot use Measure Names as a global filter. Bummer. 

But if you’re on 7, and on the fence, do yourself a favor and migrate. Our server migration took 20 minutes, and nothing broke on the back end. 

Thank you, Tableau!