Kirk Munroe: So What is Tableau Next?

 

Kevin and I are pleased to welcome back a regular contributor, Kirk Munroe. Kirk lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and is a business analytics and performance management expert. He is currently one of the owners and principal consultants at Paint with Data, a visual analytics consulting firm, along with his business partner and wife, Candice Munroe, a Tableau User Group Ambassador and former board member for Viz for Social Good.

 

Kirk is also the author of Data Modeling with Tableau, an extensive guide, complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and hands-on exercises. The book details the role that Tableau Prep Builder and Tableau Desktop each play in data modeling. It also explores the components of Tableau Server and Cloud that make data modeling more robust, secure, and performant.

 

In this post, the first in a short series about Tableau Next, Kirk is going to introduce us to Tableau Next and try to remove some of the confusion that exists in the Tableau community.

 

There’s a lot of confusion—and plenty of anxiety—in the Tableau #DataFam about Tableau Next. Tableau Tim covered the emotional side of this pretty well in his recent Whiplash video. In this post, I want to help unpack Tableau Next, with a specific focus on folks who come from the Tableau side and don’t have much (or any) background in Salesforce. If you're from the Salesforce ecosystem and just getting into Tableau, then a fair warning that this probably won’t land the same way. Feel free to read it anyway, but just understand that this is being written with that Tableau-first user in mind.

 

First, Some Context

Before diving in, we need to clarify some terminology. I know this might feel dry, but stick with me—it’s important context.

 

Tableau (the Company): Tableau existed as an independent analytics company from 2003 to 2019, when Salesforce acquired it for $15.7B. Technically, Tableau no longer exists as a standalone company, but Salesforce still dedicates significant people and resources to the Tableau product and brand. So when we talk about "Tableau" as a company, we’re really talking about that internal group within Salesforce.

 

Tableau (the Platform): This is the core software we all know—Tableau Desktop, Prep, Cloud, and Server. Tableau Cloud and Server are nearly identical (unless you're deep in the weeds), but Tableau Cloud is managed by Salesforce and benefits from more native integration with other Salesforce services (like AI). Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder are tools that connect into this platform. (Public is its own thing, so we’ll set that aside for today.)

 

Tableau (the Brand): This goes beyond logos and colors. Tableau’s brand includes its UX philosophy, its drag-and-drop interface, the sense of discovery that’s at the heart of the product, and the amazing #datafam community that has been built up around the product. It’s how people experience and perceive Tableau.

 

Salesforce (the Company): A cloud-first company founded in 1999, originally focused on CRM, but has since expanded into many areas, often through acquisition. All Tableau staff technically work for Salesforce. Even if you only buy Tableau, you're a Salesforce customer.

 

Salesforce (the Platform): Salesforce has a central cloud platform that runs its major applications. Not all Salesforce products live here yet, but many are being migrated to it over time—and that’s key to understanding Tableau Next.

 

Salesforce (the Brand): Salesforce’s brand is about “Customer 360”—one place to see, understand, and manage your customer relationships. It’s broad, ambitious, and rooted in integration.

 

So Why All This Terminology?

This terminology is important because a sizable percentage of Tableau’s engineering resources are now focused on bringing the Tableau brand (read: drag-and-drop analytics) onto the Salesforce platform. That is Tableau Next.

 

What Does This Mean for Current Tableau Users? Honestly? Maybe not much—at least not for a while. At Tableau Conference, Chief Product Officer, Southard Jones shared that 65% of Tableau employees are still working on Tableau Cloud, Server, Desktop, and Prep. So if you're already using Tableau Cloud or Server, nothing’s forcing you to move. You can keep going as-is. Long-term? Anyone’s guess. But right now, staying put is totally fine.

 

Why Build Tableau Next? Because there are something like 100,000 Salesforce customers not using the Tableau platform. That’s a big gap. Up until now, if you were a Salesforce customer and wanted to use Tableau, you had to spin up a separate Tableau Cloud instance. That meant new admin roles, governance, training—all for a tool that wasn’t natively part of your environment. Tableau Next changes that. Now, Salesforce customers can start using a Tableau-like experience within the platform they’re already on—with all the goodness of the Tableau UI and brand, but embedded in their existing Salesforce workflows and architecture. It’s a huge win for those Salesforce users.

 

One Last Clarification

A common question in the Tableau community is “Do I need to be a Salesforce customer to use Tableau Next?” The official answer has always been: “No.” But that’s not quite what people are really asking. They want to know “Can I just jump over to Tableau Next if I’m not already a Salesforce customer?” Technically yes, but practically? It’s not so simple.

 

If you’re brand new—not a Tableau or Salesforce customer—then yes, you can choose. You can buy into the traditional Tableau platform, or you can go with Tableau Next and get a more native AI and workflow-rich experience that could expand into other Salesforce products.

 

But if you’re an existing Tableau customer, and not using the Salesforce platform, migrating to Tableau Next probably doesn’t make a ton of sense—at least not right now.

 

So, What Is Tableau Next?

In short: it’s Tableau—or at least the spirit of Tableau—reimagined on the Salesforce platform. It brings many of the things we wish Tableau Cloud had today including:

 

▪  A native data lakehouse (via Data Cloud)

▪  Embedded, agentic AI experience

▪  A native workflow engine

▪  Deep integration with Salesforce apps

But...it's also a new product. It’s missing a lot of what we’re used to in Tableau Desktop today. That will likely change over time as the product matures, but as of right now, the parity is not there yet.

 

 

So that’s our short introduction to Tableau Next and what it is (and is not). I’ll be back soon with another post that dives deeper into Tableau Next, so keep an eye out.

 

Thanks so much for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please share them in the comments section below.

 

Kirk Munroe, August 4, 2025