The Salesforce company wants to make data more accessible with a set of self-service tools built into its new-look Tableau Cloud platform. Credit: Salesforce Tableau wants to make it easier for enterprise users to tell stories using their data with a set of new capabilities being added to Tableau Cloud, the new name for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) analytics platform. The new features include simplified self-service tools like Data Stories, smart suggestions through Einstein Discovery, and collaboration tools to work on shared data models. Tableau Online is being rebranded as Tableau Cloud as of this week, with Tableau CEO Mark Nelson telling the press this week that its managed SaaS option will provide enterprise customers with improved analytical tools, advanced management capabilities, better governance, tighter security, and easier ways to share your data. “We’re all having a front row seat to this data revolution,” Tableau’s chief product officer, Francois Ajenstat, said during the same press conference. More self-service data tools A direct result of Tableau’s acquisition of Narrative Science late last year, Data Stories uses natural language commands to generate explanations of Tableau dashboards, increasing the number of people who can work with the data. To create a data story, users simply drag and drop the desired dataset and then use a set of customizations to format it in their preferred way, be it to present to colleagues or clients. Tableau is also adding a Model Builder tool, which aims to help teams to build, collaborate on, and deploy predictive AI models, a Text Clustering tool to extract keywords from large text fields, and Bias Detection for existing models. Having been acquired by Salesforce in 2019, Tableau is also deepening ties with its parent company’s AI capabilities, which are branded as Einstein. Built in to Tableau Cloud, Einstein Discovery provides predictions and recommendations for users, without having to employ data scientists to write bespoke predictive models. “By harnessing these insights, even beginners can see beyond the what of their data and understand the why. You can see what could happen in the future, and what you should do about it,” Nelson said. Advanced governance Aside from the more eye-catching analytics capabilities, Tableau is also adding some new data governance and management features to Tableau Cloud. Advanced Management allows enterprise customers to manage their own encryption keys, access an activity log that tracks how Tableau is being used across the whole organization, and admin insights into dataset usage, license adoption and visualization load times for up to a year. Tableau Cloud is available to customers today, with Data Stories and Model Builder set to be made available later in the year. Related content feature The HP-Autonomy lawsuit: Timeline of an M&A disaster When Hewlett Packard bought knowledge management software firm Autonomy, it didn’t realize it was buying into a multibillion accounting cover-up. Shareholders sued HP, and HP sued Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch. Here’s how it played out over the By Peter Sayer Jun 07, 2024 9 mins HP Mergers and Acquisitions Enterprise Applications news Jury clears Autonomy CEO of fraud charges The case stemmed from Hewlett-Packard’s 2011 purchase of Autonomy for $11.1 billion. Some have blamed former CEO Meg Whitman for not testifying in the case. By Evan Schuman Jun 07, 2024 4 mins Fraud Legal Mergers and Acquisitions feature AES enlists AI to boost its sustainable energy business The American power supplier’s machine learning weather and output forecasting platform is fueling revenue growth while advancing the company’s renewable wind, solar, and energy storage goals. By Paula Rooney Jun 07, 2024 7 mins Energy Industry Digital Transformation Artificial Intelligence feature Top 8 IT certifications in demand today IT certifications can help you quickly gain and validate valuable skills and know-how in a domain that will further your career. Here are the most popular IT certs today. By Sarah K. White Jun 07, 2024 10 mins Certifications IT Skills Careers PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe