Tableau Updates Product Release Cadence

Editor's Note: This blog was originally published in September 2023, and has been updated in February 2024 with Maintenance Release Changes.

Tableau is unwavering in its dedication to democratizing data understanding. By offering an intuitive and accessible platform, Tableau helps individuals across all skill levels to interact with complex data sets, uncover meaningful insights, and make informed decisions. This commitment stems from their belief that empowering everyone with the ability to visualize and comprehend data fosters a more data-literate and analytically empowered global community.

To better serve our customers, Tableau will move from four product releases a year to three each year. This shift to three releases annually reflects a strategic move to foster more profound and impactful innovations. By allowing more time between each release cycle, Tableau can dedicate substantial resources to longer-term development projects that have the potential to revolutionize data visualization and analytics with advancements such as Tableau Pulse. 

This adjusted approach permits our team to engage in comprehensive research, gather user feedback, and thoroughly test new features, ensuring they are robust and seamlessly integrated into the platform. This measured pace aligns with the industry trend of prioritizing innovation over frequency, giving Tableau the latitude to explore innovative concepts that might require more intricate planning and implementation. Ultimately, this shift underscores Tableau's commitment to delivering not just incremental updates but transformative advancements that empower users to glean deeper insights and make more informed decisions from their data.

Along with the move, Tableau Server will update its overall release and maintenance cadence to align with this updated release cycle. The main changes are described below. Tableau Pulse powered by Tableau AI will be Beta December 2023.

Tableau Cloud Release Cadence Change

Tableau Cloud will be released every four months. The 2023.3 release will be the final release for the calendar year 2023. The next release will be 2024.1 in early 2024. 

Tableau Desktop Release Cadence Change

Tableau Desktop will be released every four months. The 2023.3 release will be the final release for the calendar year 2023. The next release will be 2024.1 in early 2024. 

Tableau Server Release Cadence Change

Tableau Server will have a significant release every eight months. The upcoming 2023.3 release will be the final release for 2023. The next release will be 2024.2 in 2024. With these changes, our naming convention for all future releases will evolve from 20xx.1. 20xx.2 20xx.3 and 20xx.4 to 20xx.1, 20xx.2 and 20xx.3.

Update for February 2024

Maintenance Releases Changes

Tableau Desktop versions that are aligned with the Tableau Server release will have the same 24-month MR support as outlined for the Tableau Server Maintenance Release.  This is to allows our customers to continue using Tableau Desktop with the same version as their Tableau Server deployments.

For Tableau Desktop versions that are only released as the companion with Tableau Cloud, the Maintenance Releases will stop after the next version of Tableau Cloud is released, which is four months.

This approach also helps ensure stable, customer-aligned updates, minimizing upgrade disruption and enabling smoother adoption of new functionalities. We hope that a refined release strategy underscores our commitment to delivering the best data visualization and analytics experience that addresses user needs precisely.

Technical Support

Technical support for Tableau Server and Tableau Desktop will continue to be provided during the same period as maintenance, as outlined on our website's Supported Versions section.

Thank you, Tableau Community!

Your daily inspiration serves as a catalyst for our endeavors, and your unwavering partnership and support are instrumental in driving every Tableau release. Your outstanding expertise, boundless creativity, and steadfast commitment to utilizing data for problem-solving are the cornerstones of our success. Without your invaluable contributions, these milestones would have remained unattainable.

We look forward to your continued engagement on the Ideas forum.