What is Tableau?

**Tableau** is a visual analytics platform that transforms the way we use data to solve problems. It empowers people and organizations to make the most of their data. As the market-leading choice for modern business intelligence, Tableau makes it easier for people to explore and manage data, discover insights, and share them to drive change in businesses and the world.

Tableau was founded in 2003 as a result of a computer science project at Stanford University. The co-founders—Chris Stolte, Pat Hanrahan, and Christian Chabot—developed and patented Tableau’s foundational technology called **VizQL**. VizQL visually expresses data by translating drag-and-drop actions into data queries through an intuitive interface. Since its foundation, Tableau has continuously invested in research and development, aiming to help anyone working with data get answers faster and uncover unanticipated insights.

Tableau offers several products:
– **Tableau Desktop**: Known as “the gold standard” in visual analytics, Tableau Desktop is where the analysis happens. Its easy-to-use interface disrupted the business intelligence industry.
– **Tableau Cloud**: This self-service analytics platform operates in the cloud without the need for server management.
– **Tableau Prep**: Used for data preparation, Tableau Prep empowers users to combine, shape, and clean their data confidently.
– **Tableau Server**: A true enterprise-scale analytics solution that allows easy sharing and management of data and insights on-premises or in the public cloud.

Whether you’re an analyst, data scientist, student, teacher, executive, or business user, Tableau’s mission remains the same: to help people see and understand their data. Organizations worldwide are using Tableau to build a data culture that drives change with data-driven solutions .