Tableau Blueprint help

The enterprise architecture survey assists IT with identifying what platforms and applications will be connected to Tableau. During the product evaluation period, some of the questions about how Tableau fits with your existing technology investments were already considered, but prior to enterprise-wide deployment, it will be beneficial to take a closer look at who owns each system and coordinate the resources needed to fully integrate Tableau within your enterprise architecture. Even if you have an existing deployment, the survey can be helpful in identifying gaps or what you might integrate next. For more information, see Tableau deployment.

Collect the following information about your enterprise architecture for the matching deployment type; Tableau Server, Tableau Cloud or CRM Analytics:

Tableau Server

Hardware

• Where will you deploy – on-premises, public cloud or hosted?
• What are your enterprise standard build/specs? (cores, VM, RAM)
• What is your enterprise server operating system?

Availability

• Is Tableau Server mission-critical, requiring high availability?
• What is the recovery time objective (RTO)?
• What is the recovery point objective (RPO)?

Security

• What is your enterprise authentication protocol? (Active Directory, LDAP, SAML)
• What is your security policy for service accounts related to Tableau Server?

Network

• Is SSL required?
• What is your policy on gateway ports over http/https?
• Are there any port restrictions?
• Is Internet access from servers permitted?
• Will users access the server externally?

Operations

• What are your enterprise software management tools? (server, client, mobile)
• What are your enterprise monitoring tools? (SCOM, Splunk, etc.)
• How many environments do you require for servers? (dev, UAT, prod)
• What processes exist for backup/restore?

Licensing

• What is the licence type (role-based subscription, core, embedded)?
• Will you distribute client software keys or use login-based licence management to manage licence keys?
• How are licence assets allocated?
• How will additional licensing purchases be made?
• Is there a chargeback model?

Client software

• How is client software deployed – Desktop, Prep Builder?
• How is client software upgraded – Desktop, Prep Builder?

Mobile

• Who is the audience for mobile analytics, and what are the primary user scenarios?
• Where will people be when they need data? (In office, the field, a home office)
• How will users reach the Tableau Server if they aren’t on the same network?
• Will users need to access data offline, without connecting to the Internet or your network?
• Will people use company-owned devices, personal devices (BYOD), or both?
• What mobile device types (phone, tablet) do you support?
• What mobile OS do you support?
• How sensitive is the data?

Analytics services

• Will you be integrating external services (R Server, Python, MATLAB, WMS)?

Automation & extensibility

• What are the requirements for automation, customisation? (APIs needed)

Data

• What database technologies (on-premises and cloud) are sources of data?
• What file-based sources of data will be used? (network folder access)
• What security policies exist for database service accounts, user accounts?
• What are your classifications for data security? (secret, confidential, internal, public, etc.)
• Do you have any data that is restricted to a geographic region?
• Are there external and/or government regulations to comply with?
• Are there row-level security requirements?

Tableau Cloud

Security

• What is your preferred authentication protocol? (SAML, Google, TableauID)
• Do you leverage a cloud SSO provider (Azure AD, AD FS, OneLogin, PingOne, Okta, Salesforce)?
• How do you perform user and group provisioning? (Cloud SSO, REST API, Manual)
• What is your security policy for service accounts? (data sources, Tableau Bridge)

Network

• Is SSL required for data source connections? (Tableau Cloud uses SSL by default)
• What is your policy on gateway ports over http/https?
• Are there any port restrictions?
• Is Internet access from internal servers permitted?

Licensing

• Will you distribute client software keys or use login-based licence management to manage licence keys?
• How are licence assets allocated?
• How will additional licensing purchases be made?
• Is there a charge-back model?

Client software

• How is client software deployed – Desktop, Prep Builder? (manual, silent, self-service)
• How will client software be updated? (manual, silent, self-service)
• How will Tableau Bridge be deployed and managed? (If needed, centralised recommended)

Cloud application integration

• What are the requirements for branding and customisation?
• What are the requirements for automation with APIs?
• What are your site monitoring needs? (trust.tableau.com, site status admin views, custom reporting in Admin Insights)

Mobile

• What is your mobile device management solution?
• Who is the audience for mobile analytics, and what are the primary user scenarios?
• Where will people be when they need data? In the field, a home office, or both?
• Will users need to access data offline, without connecting to the Internet or your network?
• Will people use company-owned devices, personal devices (BYOD), or both?
• What mobile device types (phone, tablet) do you support?
• What mobile OS do you support?

Data

• What cloud sources of data will be accessed?
• What on-premises sources of data will be accessed? (databases, virtual private environments, applications, files)
• Will Tableau Bridge be used to move data into Tableau Cloud?
• What security policies exist for database service accounts, user accounts?
• Will credentials be embedded? Will the credentials be a service account or a data steward account?
• What data security measures, considerations and/or company policies are required by your organisation for your internal data?
• Are there external and/or government regulations to comply with?
• Do you have any data that is required to be stored in a geographic region (sales territories, geographic data housing restrictions, etc.)?
• Are there row-level security requirements?

CRM Analytics

Security

• Have all CRM Analytics users been added to the Salesforce org?
• Are you planning to implement any Salesforce-related security features like SSO or two authentication steps?
• How do you perform user and group provisioning? (Cloud SSO, REST API, Manual)
• What is your security policy for creating connectors and/or leveraging ETL tools for on-premises data?

Network

• Is there any particular security required for data source connections (connectors)?
• Do any IP addresses need to be added to the allowed-access list?

Licensing

• How are you going to provision and activate licences (PSLs)?
• Do you have any CRM Analytics community-specific licences?
• How will additional licensing purchases be made?
• Do you need to plan for additional data-rows future purchases?
• Cloud application integration
• What are the requirements for branding and customisation?
• What are the requirements for automation with APIs?
• Are you planning to use the Predictions API to score data outside Salesforce?
• What are your data-monitoring needs (trust.salesforce.com, jobs under Data Manager, notifications and alerts, custom dashboards)?

Mobile

• What is your mobile device management solution?
• Who is the audience for mobile analytics, and what are the primary user scenarios?
• Where will people be when they need data? In the field, a home office, or both?
• Will users need to access data offline, without connecting to the Internet or your network?
• Will people use company-owned devices, personal devices (BYOD), or both?
• What mobile device types (phone, tablet) do you support?
• What mobile OS do you support?
• What are the requirements for branding and customisation?
• What are the requirements for automation with APIs?
• Are you planning to use the Predictions API to score data outside Salesforce?
• What are your data-monitoring needs (trust.salesforce.com, jobs under Data Manager, notifications and alerts, custom dashboards)?

Data

• What cloud sources of data will be accessed?
• What on-premises data sources will be accessed and how (ETL tools, APIs, etc.)?
• What sync policies will you use (incremental or full refreshes, filters, single or multiple local org connections, or live connectors)?
• What security policies exist for database service accounts and user accounts?
• What are the refresh rates and orchestration requirements?
• Will the credentials for connectors be a service account or a data steward account?
• Do you have any snapshotting requirements (storing historical data) and what are the expected volumes vs number of rows available?
• How will you plan for data volume (number of records in datasets) monitoring and clean up?
• What data security measures, considerations and/or company policies are required by your organisation for your internal data?
• Are there external and/or government regulations to comply with?
• Do you have any data that is required to be stored in a geographic region (sales territories, geographic data housing restrictions, etc.)?
• Are there row-level security requirements?