Work with large datasets

Analytics in any digital touchpoint

Explore and pivot instantly 

Data is growing: faster, deeper, more complex

Teams expect answers on demand, but traditional dashboards aren’t always built to handle scale. The moment users start scrolling through millions of rows, applying multiple filters, or grouping by multiple dimensions, things begin to fall apart.

Performance dips. Dashboards freeze. Data gets scrambled. This is the tipping point where exploration becomes limitation.

That’s where the new SuperTables comes in.

The challenge: When “too much data” becomes a bottleneck.

Imagine a sales analyst, working in a fast-growing company. Tasked with analyzing Furniture > Storage sales in using a dataset with millions of records. The problem started from the step one when the dashboard froze under the load, revealing it wasn’t built to handle data at that scale. This inspired the development of the solution, which can tackle many similar situations.

The solution: SuperTables with server side rows.

SuperTables, which offers Excel like flexibility in your Tableau dashboards, was improved to solve exactly this. Powered by the new Server Side Model, SuperTables has been optimized for performance at scale, offering a completely new interaction experience:

• Streams rows on-demand – only as the user scrolls
• Executes filters and aggregations on the server
• Handles Millions of records without lag

In this case, it means the analyst could scroll seamlessly through orders, products, and regions.

No crashes, no preloading, no compromises.

Snappy performance on 4.2 million rows.

Auto-aggregation: Built for exploration

For the analyst, summarizing “What are the total sales by Category, Subcategory, and Region?” became as simple as dragging and dropping fields into view.

Fast and easy. No wait for the query to execute or slow dashboard.

Without any manual configuration, the SuperTable aggregates the values, recalculates totals, fast and simple, at the same time still offering a lot of flexibility.

With millions of rows, it’s important to build views which explain the sales in a simple way, like aggregated sales with category subcategory.

Auto-aggregation.

7.2 million rows, analysed, quick

The analyst was also tasked to prepare a view with hierarchy which makes an in depth analysis possible. “A hierarchy with 4 million rows?”

The goal: Explore regional sales figures per subcategory and category.

Drag and drop, it auto aggregates, quick, with 7.2 million rows!

Auto-aggregation.

Export subsets of the data, just like an SQL query

There are also request from different teams to export data into Excel for further exploration. For example, the marketing team want “aggregated sales figures of products from the company ‘Max’, ” the data is spread across millions of rows.

Imagine a scenario, where you don’t have to write complex queries.

Rather query with a few clicks, using the advanced if else filters on a large datasets. AND perform an analysis on it, even export it to Excel or PDF, or CSV!

Export subsets of data.

Real-time updates

What if your data changes every few minutes. New sales added, new customers, new products.

You don’t want the the dashboard to reload, freeze, or even have press a reload button.

Instead just watch individual cells being updated, colors changing and all.

Real-time updates.

Embed anywhere: SuperTables as a standalone tool

This functionality is part of the roadmap and may not be launched simultaneously with the features mentioned in this blog. The concept is still being explored and timelines are to be determined.

One of the biggest evolutions? SuperTables can now live outside of Tableau. This grants access for non-Tableau users across an organization.

Teams can embed SuperTables directly into:

• Teams
• Internal portals
• Web applications

With full interactivity, including filtering, sorting, and writebacks, users can explore live data without needing Tableau dashboards or viewer licenses.

“Now the data meets users where they already work.”

Collaborate directly, add comments, edit values, add values.

SuperTables as a standalone tool in Microsoft Teams.

Governed and Secure with VDS

Behind the performance lies robust data governance.

SuperTables will connect using Tableau’s Virtual Data Source (VDS) API, ensuring all queries:

• Runs on Tableau Server and Cloud
• Kept secure and compliant
• Never pulled into the browser

Live access, governed pipelines, and zero data duplication make this a solution that satisfies both analysts and IT.

SuperTables reimagined: Built for the modern analyst

SuperTables is more than a table. It’s now a full-fledged exploration and analysis engine which is deeply integrated with Tableau, yet powerful enough to stand alone.

It’s designed for teams who need to:

• Work with large datasets
• Explore and pivot without delay
• Collaborate across functions
• Operate with governance and speed
• Embed analytics into any digital touchpoint