Tableau Delivers Additional Flexibility to Hadoop Community with Spark SQL Support


Company launches direct connector for Spark SQL providing visual analytics for cutting edge data processing framework

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Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA), a global leader in rapid-fire, easy-to-use business intelligence software, today announced a direct connector for Spark SQL giving companies and individuals using Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark additional flexibility for doing fast analytics to solve Big Data problems.

“Tableau’s goal is always to make connecting to data as simple and fast as possible and a big part of that is offering direct connectivity to a wide variety of data sources,” said Dan Jewett, Vice President of Product Management for Tableau Software. “The Apache community’s work on Spark has produced impressive results for dealing with massive data sets and we want to make sure everyone with data questions can take advantage of their breakthroughs without needing to know programming or query languages.”

Spark SQL, a key part of the Apache Spark project is optimized both in-memory and on-disk through Spark Schema RDDs to drastically improve query performance over Hive with MapReduce. Tableau’s direct connector means everyday users will be able to leverage the power of Spark SQL in the familiar and easy to use Tableau interface. The Spark SQL connector was certified by Databricks, whose founders make-up the original creators of the Apache Spark project.

“We’re thrilled to have Tableau supporting Spark SQL with a direct connector” said Kavitha Mariappan, Vice President, Marketing at Databricks. “Too many organizations fail to realize the full value of their data processing investments. A common challenge they face today is that their queries take too long and impede their analytics workflow. Tableau combined with Spark SQL means users are free to focus on turning their data into value anywhere, both on-premises and in the cloud. Tableau’s Spark SQL connector also extends the usefulness of Spark beyond developers to data scientists, and to the non-technical business user.”

The new direct connector for Spark SQL is available with Tableau release 8.3.3. Attendees at Strata + Hadoop World in San Jose can stop by the Tableau booth #625 to learn more about the new integration.

About Tableau
Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA) helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyze, visualize and share information. More than 26,000 customer accounts get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. And tens of thousands of people use Tableau Public to share data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableau.com/trial.

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