Announcing Google Cloud SQL Connector for Tableau Online, Server, & Desktop

Editor’s Note: Tableau Online is now Tableau Cloud.

The future of data is in the cloud. As options for cloud data emerge, we continue to add connections to them. We want to ensure Tableau customers can always work with all of their data. That’s why we’re thrilled to share our plans to add a Google Cloud SQL connector to Tableau Online. We've also just made the connector available in Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server. Google Cloud SQL is a hosted MySQL database that is part of the Google Cloud Platform. The new connector will compliment Tableau’s existing connectors to Google BigQuery and Google Analytics. "Our support of Google Cloud SQL will help customers because it mirrors a broader trend we’re seeing with data, which is that data is increasingly being stored in the cloud,” said Jeff Feng, a product manager at Tableau. "The connector moves Google Cloud Platform and Tableau Online customers one step closer to being able to both host and analyze data completely in the cloud." We first announced the connector at a recent Google Cloud Platform Next event in San Francisco. We also shared the stage in New York and Tokyo as part of our five-stop tour with Google. And we’re currently in Europe to help host events in London and Amsterdam. Tableau's Jeff Feng presents on stage in Amsterdam.

Cloud-based solutions embrace the forward-thinking mindset of today’s innovators, said Carl Schacter, Google’s vice president of global markets, at the San Francisco event. Uber doesn’t own a single car, Facebook doesn’t create any content, and Alibaba doesn’t own any inventory, yet each has successfully disrupted its industry, Carl said.

“This is a really different kind of thinking. This is what we want to encourage,” Carl said. “This is what cloud computing allows us to do. It allows us to rethink our engagement with our surrounding, with markets, even with objects that were previously thought to be inanimate.”

Cloud computing is fueling the Internet of Things proposition, and helping improve experiences and decision-making, Carl said. Google expects to see more than 35 billion connected devices by the year 2020. And leading the charge in this fast-evolving landscape are startups and new players who utilize the cloud to “think without constraints,” Carl said.

“It’s enabled them to think beyond where their budgets previously would have allowed them to go, and to execute with a degree of flexibility and freedom they didn't have before,” Carl said. (Watch the entire keynote and join the conversation on Twitter using #GCPNext.)

Tableau Online's Google Cloud SQL connector will be available in the coming months. In the meantime, here’s a preview of the Desktop connector experience:

This is the latest step in our continuous effort to make Tableau Online faster, more scalable, and easier to integrate with existing ecosystems.

In recent weeks, we’ve released a number of new features including SAML authentication, custom site logos, and the sync client feature.