Streamline the Power of Data: Why You Should Migrate to Tableau Cloud

Data is more abundant than ever, and it’s easier than ever to transform and visualize it to make it useful to decision makers.

Building great dashboards is only the first part of the challenge, though. If analytics are only available to the creators, a lot of people who would benefit from them are missing out. The next big step is to share that work with all the people in your organization who would benefit from it.

If you are in the process of transforming your business to be more reliant on data, you will face the question of how to socialize the great work you are doing. It is a question with a few pieces, pulling in different directions. You want to your data to be fast, current, and accessible everywhere. You want your dashboards to look great on every device. Of course, you also want your system to be cost-efficient and your sensitive data to be secure.

That’s where Tableau Cloud comes in.

Whether you are already using Tableau and want to share your work to the broader organization, or are still deciding which visualization tool to use, understanding Tableau Cloud will help you take the next step in developing your analytics.

What is Tableau Cloud?

Tableau Cloud is Tableau Server, Tableau’s publishing and collaboration platform. Tableau Server is a secure way to share and interact with Tableau workbooks and published data sources—and perform self-service analytics. It allows you to organize all this content so it is easy to find and use collaboratively. Tableau Server is installed on-prem, architected, hosted and maintained by you.

Tableau Cloud is simply a version of Tableau Server hosted by Tableau itself. Because Tableau maintains the service, it is regularly updated to the latest stable version. It’s described as a “fast, flexible, easy-to-use self-service platform designed to fit your enterprise architecture” and can help you:

• Drive faster, smarter decision-making
• Integrate data insights where you work
• Scale fast with easy & secure analytics
• Deliver trust & confidence in your data

How to Know If I Need It?

As a consultant, with Tableau at the center of my practice for more than eight years now, I have seen a wide variety of client situations. There are certainly unique cases but, for the most part, there are two scenarios in which I see clients considering Tableau Cloud most often. The first is organizations relatively new to Tableau, who are either acquiring Tableau for the first time, or have been developing Tableau dashboards but using them only within the small group of analysts who have Desktop licenses or, possibly, a few folks using Tableau Reader.

The second group most likely to consider Tableau Cloud are those organizations who have an instance of Tableau Server but have found that maintaining it in-house is taking up too much of the organization’s resources. Implementing Tableau Server is a significant undertaking. It requires understanding the organization’s needs, creating appropriate architecture, and monitoring usage to scale up and out before performance bottlenecks start to appear. It means testing and installing version upgrades four or more times a year.

Ready to Start Your Tableau Cloud Journey?

If you think the Tableau Cloud approach is right for your business or just worth taking a look at, we can help. As Tableau experts, our team can support your migration and help you develop a culture of self-service analytics.

Our Tableau Cloud migration plan provides easy, step-by-step guidance on everything you’ll need to migrate your business-critical Tableau solutions, data, and infrastructure to Tableau Cloud with confidence. No matter where you are in the migration process, we will provide an objective assessment of what lies ahead.

Schedule a consultation with one of our experts today!

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