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Tableau Consulting: Online Version Released

Tableau Online: Moving to the Cloud

Today, Tableau announced a move to a cloud version of their business intelligence services. According to an article in the Seattle Times, “Tableau is pitching its cloud version as being easier and more flexible for companies to deploy. It doesn’t require software installation and is accessible via most browsers on PCs and tablets.”

tableauAccording to Entrance’s president Nate Richards, “Our Tableau consultants have already helped customers implement Tableau Server for big improvements to their business intelligence capability. As a Tableau partner, we see more options and flexibility as something that can only provide more options to our customers.”

One ZDNet article described Tableau Online is a “hosted installation of Tableau 8, running on the company’s own multi-tenant cloud infrastructure.” One concern for going to the cloud for some consumers may be price. The Online version costs $500 per user, per year, which is a big difference from perpetual licensing found in the Server vision. As ZDNet highlights however, “This works out to a monthly cost of $41.67 per user, which makes in-line with, or even less expensive than, certain online CRM offerings.”

Tableau Consulting: How Do We Know Whether to Make the Switch?

So who should consider switching to the Online product? In our Tableau consulting work, we always start by evaluating the business need of our client. For some, Online’s somewhat limited capability in creating dashboards may be a concern. This may suggest the need for a mix of online and hosted versions of Tableau.

One reason to consider Online is if employees need to access Tableau in situations where VPN is impractical, such as in the field, or when customers need to see a report. Online also removes much of the pressure for hosting the service on company browsers.

Particularly as company “spending on analytics, collaboration and software-as-a-service products is expected to outpace overall tech spending in 2013 and 2014,” this move to the cloud could be part of a strategic initiative for your company.

For more on this software service, and how Tableau consulting services can help your company, watch this video!

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