Plan Your Data Content Strategy for Tableau Cloud
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the different data connectivity options for Tableau Cloud.
- Compare how Tableau Cloud manages data that’s on the cloud versus data that’s on private networks.
- Explain what Tableau Bridge and Data Connect are.
Introduction
As with any analytics deployment, for a successful migration to Tableau Cloud, you need to develop a strategy for accessing all of your content and data.
In this unit, you learn the key considerations for connecting, migrating, and managing various data source types. You also explore how to manage private network data sources (also known as on-premises or private cloud data sources) using Tableau Bridge or Data Connect.
Data and Content Strategy
Let’s start with a short video on data source strategy.
Content Clean-Up
Similar to planning a move from a home you’ve lived in for a long time, a migration from Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud gives you an opportunity to evaluate what data you plan to take with you to the “new house.” A well-used and well-loved Tableau Server deployment likely has accumulated many dashboards and data sources that were once mission critical, but now might be ready to retire.
Begin designing your data strategy by deciding what dashboards and data you want to migrate to Tableau Cloud, and what you don’t need to migrate.
- You can use the Stale Content (Windows | Linux) admin view in Tableau Server to identify content that’s no longer in use. It doesn’t usually make sense to move ancient, archived content to Tableau Cloud. If it doesn’t bring you joy, let it go!
- Like most organizations who’ve been running Tableau Server for a while, your content hierarchy and permission structure has probably “evolved” organically and probably a bit messily. As you plan the migration, develop a strategy that improves project, group, and permissions structures in your new Tableau Cloud site.
- If you’re a Tableau Data Management customer, use the tools to manage data cleaning, combining, and processing for the pending move.
Improve Dashboard Performance
When it comes to performance, a good rule of thumb is that if your dashboards are slow on Tableau Server, they’ll likely be slow on Tableau Cloud as well. Before you migrate, address any dashboard performance issues using the steps in Optimize Workbook Performance. Making adjustments before migrating ensures you enjoy improved performance on Tableau Cloud.
Data Governance and Security
Once you’ve identified your mission-critical content, confirm that the data source connectivity, governance, and security requirements are a fit for Tableau Cloud. On an individual Tableau Cloud site (which is set up by your Tableau Cloud administrator), each data source and related content should have appropriate security and governance protocols to ensure that the right people, and only the right people, have access to the data they need. Your organization’s Analytics Center of Excellence (also known as COE, or Center of Practice, COP) should guide your strategy on how to govern and secure the data.
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Data sensitivity: Classify data based on sensitivity and compliance requirements. Ensure that sensitive data is encrypted and access is controlled.
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User access management: Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) to manage who can view and interact with specific data sources.
Don’t have an Analytics Center of Excellence? Find out how to get started.
Data Source Types and Connectivity Options
Your Tableau Cloud deployment can use almost any data source, including:ƒ
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Cloud-based data sources: These include databases and services hosted on public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and SaaS applications like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and others.
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On-premises data sources: These include traditional databases (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL), file systems, and other enterprise data warehouses hosted within the organization’s local network. Use Tableau Bridge or Data Connect to keep these data sources up to date automatically on Tableau Cloud. (More on this in a bit.)
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Data sources hosted in a virtual private cloud (VPC): These data sources are not exposed to the internet. Like on-premises data sources, you can use Tableau Bridge or Data Connect to keep these connections fresh.
For each data source that you intend to move to Tableau Cloud cross-check the connections with the Tableau Cloud connector table. If it’s supported, you’ve got a direct path forward. If it’s not in the table:
- Cross-check it with the Connectivity with Bridge help article to determine if your data type is supported by Tableau Bridge.
- If the data source is a static file, Tableau Cloud supports uploading Excel or text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv) directly from the browser or Tableau Desktop. The maximum file size you can upload is 1 GB. More likely, your users are connecting to these types of files in a shared, common directory. If this is the case, you should upload these files to a public cloud space such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, for example. Or you can use Bridge. You (or your users) can then configure Tableau Cloud to connect to these spaces for a live data connection.
- Run the Tableau Cloud Migration Technical Readiness Assessment to understand if there are any use cases that might need to be adapted before migrating to Tableau Cloud.
Use Tableau Bridge for Private Network Data Sources
One major difference between Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud is how private network data is accessed. In a Tableau Server deployment, all of your private network data sources (for example, Excel files on someone’s laptop, an on-premises SQL server) sit behind your firewall and within your network. That means that in a Tableau Server deployment, your data sources can be reached (or “pulled”) without ever leaving your internal network.
Tableau Cloud operates differently. Our Tableau Cloud software never reaches behind your firewall or into your personal network (that would be a security risk!). Instead, you can use Tableau Bridge to securely “push” your private network data to Tableau Cloud.
Tableau Bridge is client software that runs on a machine in your network. The client works in conjunction with Tableau Cloud to keep data sources that connect to private network data–which Tableau Cloud can’t reach directly–up to date either through a live connection or by refreshing an extract. Private network data includes on-premises data and private network cloud data.
As of February 2025, Tableau has PrivateLink connection in pilot, which more seamlessly connects Hyperforce to AWS data. More to come as it is released.
Monitor and Maintain Tableau Bridge
In the previous unit, you learned about the shared responsibility model for Tableau Cloud. It’s the customer’s responsibility (traditionally the site administrator and content owner) to regularly monitor and maintain Tableau Bridge machines.
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Monitor performance: Regularly monitor the performance of Tableau Bridge and the data sources through Admin Insights. Address any connectivity issues promptly.
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Update software: Keep Tableau Bridge and related software up-to-date to benefit from the latest features and security patches to align with our releases of Tableau Cloud.
Data Connect: Let Tableau Manage Bridge For You
Data Connect delegates the maintenance of Tableau Bridge to Tableau for customers who want to minimize the management of Bridge maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting. Data Connect operates as a shared responsibility model. With this model, customers supply the physical or virtual compute resources, and Tableau hosts and manages the Data Connect Kubernetes cluster on those resources.
Let’s Recap
You’ve learned that a well-defined content and data strategy is crucial for a successful Tableau Cloud deployment. With options to connect to your private network data using Tableau Bridge or Data Connect, or to connect directly to cloud-hosted data sources, your organization can seamlessly, securely integrate all your data sources. Next, you learn about Tableau Cloud site capacities.