Tableau in Brief
Tableau is an effective and fastest developing data visualization tool used in the Business Intelligence Industry. It helps in simplifying raw data into the very easily comprehensible format. Data analysis is very fast with Tableau and the visualizations created are in the form of dashboards and worksheets. The records that is created using Tableau can be understood through professional at any level in an organization. It even approves a non- technical user to create a customized dashboard.
Tableau connects and extracts the data stored in various places. It can pull data from any platform imaginable. A simple database such as an excel, pdf, to a complex database like Oracle, a database in the cloud such as Amazon webs services, Microsoft Azure SQL database, Google Cloud SQL and a number of other data sources can be extracted through Tableau.
When Tableau is launched, equipped data connectors are available which permits you to connect to any database. Depending on the version of Tableau that you have bought the number of data connectors supported through Tableau will vary. The pulled data can be either connected live or extracted to the Tableau’s data engine, Tableau Desktop. This is where the Data analyst, data engineer work with the data that used to be pulled up and enhance visualizations. The created dashboards are shared with the users as a static file. The users who acquire the dashboards views the file using Tableau Reader. The information from the Tableau Desktop can be posted to the Tableau server. This is an organization platform where collaboration, distribution, governance, security model, automation aspects are supported. With the Tableau server, the end users have a better experience in having access to the documents from all places be it a desktop, mobile or email.
Tableau Pros:
- Tableau server’s portal is certainly convenient. Users feel at ease using it.
- The learning curve of Tableau Server from an end-user point of view is certainly short. For the creator of content, it is a little more complicated however easy to learn. Tableau has definitely succeeded in developing a user-friendly software.
- From an administration point of view, Tableau is great. Installation and housekeeping are certainly easy and quick.
- Visuals are clearly appealing and will assist “sell” your presentations.
- Tableau permits connectivity to a big choice of data sources and data formats.
Cons:
- Tableau Server is referred to as Microsoft Excel with a power boost. It is because the software is almost completely visualization software. If you are looking for actually advanced analytics combined with modern visualization, Tableau Server isn’t it.
- Tableau Server limits the type of graphs a user can create. There are numerous workarounds for unique graph types, however they are not easy to implement.
- Tableau Server can sometimes be slow to render graphics with a lot of data and calculated fields.
IBM Cognos
Cognos incorporates visualizations, but these features aren’t the solution’s core focus. Cognos is a complete BI platform, with a vast number of tools for an enterprise’s data experts. IBM Cognos is to make your Organization mend its way towards an analytics-driven organization. IBM Cognos gives elements that work well for individuals, workgroups and departments in all mid-sized companies to large and greater organizations – it designed in such a manner to assist nearly every specific need in the Business Intelligence domain and the Analytics domain.
As it is a huge BI platform, Cognos users need to specialize in managing data. Various tools supplement back-end tasks such as the ETL process, data warehousing, data integration and SQL queries. Cognos permits users to make certain their data has high integrity and meets company standards.
IBM Cognos Pros:
- It is great at offering detailed table lists of rows and provides it in multiple pages of a PDF primarily based on the size of the table being exported.
- Bursting to the appropriate individuals what they desire to see/ have privileges to see.
- Being able to e mail reports, whether that is HTML, PDF, or Excel formats.
Cons:
- Web-based authoring environment is slow, in contrast to Desktop based environment. It receives slower if the dimension of data gets bigger.
- It is excellent when we create reports using coded data based on relational databases. Since a lot of clinical facts are unstructured formatted, it may also be required of good data wrangling feature to include them into the reports.
- Chart types and look and sense configuration flexibility is limited, mainly compared to competitors such as Tableau.
Difference between Tableau and IBM Cognos
| Tableau | IBM Cognos |
| Tableau offers a feature to import and visualize large data sets permits users to drill down into the data and also approves making queries. | IBM Cognos makes it easy for users to dynamically explore data relations by transforming data into metadata. |
| Tableau makes it very easy to use and makes it very comfortable for customers who are not explicitly data specialists to explore the essential data without any issues. |
IBM Cognos is a wholesome platform for data experts alone as it is not that simple enough for customers with common abilities to explore and learn it. |
| Tableau provides a free trial version for a month’s usage to understand the power of the tool | IBM Cognos does not provide a free trial of its software offerings for the Customers |
| Tableau gives integration with R and Google Analytics. R models can be run as-is, just after the Tableau integration with R. | It is well connected and seamlessly built-in with the IBM family of products |
| Tableau provides features like Customizable Dashboard, Financial ForecastBudget, Graphic Benchmark Tools, Highlight and filter data, List of native data connectors | IBM Cognos provides features like Simple and Intuitive interface, Smart search works in the context, Personalized experience, Scheduling and alerts, Interactive content made available both online and offline |
| Tableau provides supports to extract data from various kinds of data sources, combinations of data-sources for data analysis is still considered not so strong. | This is one of the strongest areas of IBM Cognos, as it has the ability to combine and provide better results from multiple sources of data |
| Tableau is targeted to be used in Small, Medium to Large enterprises | IBM Cognos is targeted to be used in Small, Medium and Large enterprises as well. |
| Tableau has the functionality of doing a quick, ad-hoc analysis on data using its two methods of data collection that is Live Connection or by In-memory. Both of these count on the local database and do the retrieval of the required data the quickest. | IBM Cognos does the technology of reports against each transactional and data marts. It has the capability to capture and combine outcomes from multiple databases |
What Are The Alternatives?
Cognos and Tableau each serve very different purposes. Here are some alternatives that fit the middle ground between each product: Power BI, IBM Watson and Qlik.
Power BI: Compared to Tableau, Power BI serves a similar user, however doesn’t have the same depth with visualizations. It’s best described as an Excel upgrade. When data outgrows Excel, Power BI is a right choice. Compared to Cognos, Power BI doesn’t have a similar array of tools for data experts to use.
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of information into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Your data may also be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets you effortlessly connect to your data sources, visualize and find out what’s important, and share that with everyone or anyone you want.
Benefits using Power BI:
- Integrates seamlessly with existing applications:
Power BI integrates effortlessly with your current business environment permitting you to adopt analytics and reporting capabilities. Microsoft Azure consultants can also assist you in leveraging this intuitive tool to embed interactive visuals in your applications easily.
- Rich personalized dashboards:
The crowning characteristic of Power BI is the data dashboards, which can be custom-made to meet the actual need of any enterprise. You can easily embed the dashboards and BI reports in the applications to provide a unified user experience.
- No memory and speed constraints:
Shifting an existing BI system to powerful cloud environment with Power BI embedded eliminates memory and speed constraints ensuring data is quickly retrievable and analyzed.
- Extracting business intelligence rapidly and accurately:
It helps in transforming your company data into rich visuals, therefore extracting business intelligence for enhanced decision making.
- Balanced simplicity and performance:
The in-memory analysis technology and DAX scripting language are both exquisite examples of a balance between simplicity and performance.
- Supports Advanced Data services:
Microsoft Power BI developments teams can assist integrate the environment seamlessly with advanced cloud services like Cognitive services, Cortana or Bot framework.
