The Tableau universe

Tableau Software has a focused vision resulting in a small product line. The main product (and hence the center of the Tableau universe) is Tableau Desktop. Assuming you are a Tableau author, that's where almost all your time will be spent when working with Tableau. But of course you must be able to connect to data and output the results. Thus, as shown in the following figure, the Tableau universe encompasses data sources, Tableau Desktop, and output channels, which include the Tableau Server family and Tableau Reader:

Data Sources	Tableau connects to many data sources. Those data sources will be discussed in more detail in the following section.
Tableau Desktop	Tableau Desktop is where visualizations are created. Although, as of Tableau 8.0, some authoring capabilities were introduced into the Tableau Server environment, that environment is limited. (See Chapter 12, Interacting with Tableau Server to learn more about authoring in the Tableau Server environment.) Thus, the heavy lifting is still done in Tableau Desktop.
Tableau Server Family	Once completed in Tableau Desktop, a workbook can be uploaded to Tableau Server for end-user access. Tableau Server provides a secure, web-based environment where end users can access visualizations created in Desktop either through a browser or via the Tableau Mobile app for Android and iPhone. Tableau Online is a cloud-based version of Tableau Server hosted by Tableau Software. It's an ideal solution for smaller organizations that need the security and flexibility of Server without the associated overheads. Tableau Public is, in reality, split into two products: the Tableau Public client, and a cloud-based, public-facing version of Tableau Server. The client has the capabilities of Desktop, with a few major exceptions: The data sources you can connect to are very limited (for example, Excel, Access, text file formats and web data connectors) You can only publish to Tableau Public You are limited to 15 million rows of data per workbook
Tableau Reader	The relationship between Tableau Desktop and Tableau Reader is synonymous to that between Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. Desktop is used for authoring; Reader is used for viewing. Desktop has an associated cost; Reader is free. A few brief notes regarding Reader: Filters, dashboard actions, animation and parameters are all accessible on Reader, but no authoring is enabled Reader is useful for presentations when Desktop is not available Reader can only be used with packaged workbooks that do not contain live connections to other data sources