When I last spoke to business analytics vendor Tableau Software in April 2009, the company had run off a string of uninterrupted growth. In a  challenging 2009, Tableau continued to grow, and in our most recent conversation the team was upbeat. Q1 was looking very good, and the company has over 4000 named accounts now. Its revenue  growth was about 50% overall at the end of the year, and direct sales are growing faster than indirect as its sales model shifts with increased visibility. Tableau is among the leaders of the new advanced visualization players, and the battle is heating up.Release 5.0 came at midyear 2009, delivering more visualizations, improved dashboard interactivity, and scalability and performance features. In July, a user conference in Seattle drew a record crowd, and over the remainder of the year, the marketing team kept up a steady stream of press releases about awards and customer success. Tableau's marketing has executed better than many larger firms it competes with, establishing its visibility with focused, aggressive communications. At yearend, the Enterprise Irregulars featured advanced visualization in Nenshad Barodiwalla's piece on key BI trends for 2010, calling Tableau out as one of several visionary vendors.

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