The Backbone of Tableau: Understanding Its Architecture for Better Data Insights

Tableau is a data visualisation and business intelligence platform which allows users to build and share interactive dashboards, charts, and reports.

The Tableau architecture consists of three main components: the Tableau Server, the Tableau Desktop, and the Tableau Mobile app.

The Tableau Server is a web-based platform that hosts and serves Tableau dashboards, reports, and data sources to users. It provides a central location for storing and managing data, and enables users to access and interact with data from any device with a web browser. The Tableau Server also provides security and management features, such as user authentication, data governance, and data refresh scheduling.

The Tableau Desktop is a desktop application that allows users to create and publish dashboards and reports to the Tableau Server. It provides a graphical user interface for building and designing dashboards and reports, and allows users to connect to and visualize data from a wide range of sources, including databases, spreadsheets, and cloud-based data platforms.

The Tableau Mobile app is a mobile application that allows users to access and interact with Tableau dashboards and reports on their mobile devices. It provides a seamless experience for accessing and analyzing data on the go, and allows users to stay connected to their data and insights even when they are away from their desktops.

In addition to these main components, Tableau also provides a set of APIs and developer tools that allow developers to integrate Tableau functionality into their own applications and automate common tasks. These tools include the Tableau REST API, the Tableau Server Client (TSC), and the Tableau Data Extract API.

Tableau’s architecture is designed to provide fast, interactive data visualization and exploration. The main components of Tableau’s architecture are:

1. Tableau Desktop: This is the client application that users interact with to create visualizations and dashboards. Tableau Desktop allows users to connect to data sources, create visualizations, and publish them to Tableau Server or Tableau Online.
2. Tableau Server or Tableau Online: This is the server-side component that allows users to share and collaborate on visualizations and dashboards. Tableau Server or Tableau Online can be installed on-premises or in the cloud, and it provides secure access to visualizations and data for authorized users.
3. Data Sources: Tableau can connect to a wide various of data sources, including spreadsheets, databases, and cloud services. The data sources can be live connections or extracts, which are snapshots of the data that can be used when a live connection is not possible.
4. Data Engine: The data engine is the component that processes the data and creates the visualizations. The data engine uses a highly optimized query engine that can handle large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
5. Data Cache: Tableau uses a data cache to store the data used in visualizations. The data cache is used to improve performance by reducing the number of queries that need to be sent to the data source.
6. VizQL: VizQL stands for “Visual Query Language” which is a proprietary language developed by Tableau that is used to create visualizations. It is the layer that sits between the data engine and the user interface that is used to translate user interactions into data queries.
7. Authentication and Authorization: Tableau’s architecture includes built-in support for authentication and authorization. Users are required to log in to Tableau Server or Tableau Online to access visualizations and data.
8. Tableau Mobile: Tableau Mobile is a companion app which allows users to view and interact with Tableau visualizations and dashboards on mobile devices.
9. Tableau Data Management: Tableau also offers a data management and governance solution, Tableau Catalog, which allows organizations to discover, understand, and govern their data.

Tableau’s architecture is designed to be highly scalable, allowing it to handle large amounts of data and support large numbers of users. The architecture is also designed to be secure, with built-in support for authentication and authorization, as well as support for data encryption.