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Tableau | Data engineering | Analytics

Amazon S3 Connector for Tableau #dataanlysis #tableau #aws #s3

Drop a CSV or Parquet file in an S3 bucket, hand Tableau the details, and boom — you're connected.

Tim Ngwena •1 February 2026 •1 min read •2 min watch •1.2K

The new S3 connector is in beta and lets you connect directly to data sitting in an Amazon S3 bucket
To connect you supply the bucket region, name, access key and secret access key
The connector supports CSV and Parquet files only
Parquet is a highly efficient compressed format — an 83MB file expanded to roughly 1.2GB as CSV
Leaving data in the bucket means Tableau can pick up the latest contents on refresh, which suits enterprise workflows where S3 is the default storage

0:00New Amazon S3 connector and beta actually connect to and analyze S3 data and tableau with a new S3 connector now in beta.

0:08Essentially just improving the connector.

0:10Amazon S3 is a cloud bucket storage solution.

0:14S3 stands for Simple Storage Solution.

0:16That's the acronym, hence it's called S3.

0:19It's essentially a way of storing information in the cloud.

0:22And it's done through this process of buckets.

0:24And so what you see here on the right is a form that basically asks you for the detail of the bucket.

0:29You give it a region, the name, access key, secret access key.

0:32Once you've done that, Tableau can connect to any data that's in that bucket.

0:36Now

0:37When it comes to data types, I think there's going to be a requirement here.

0:40So if I just read into this, Amazon has three data files, CSV and Parquet files.

0:45So it has to be explicitly CSV and parquet files.

0:48Parquet is a compressed data format that's extremely efficient.

0:52To give you an example, a client sent me a file that was 83 megabytes.

0:57that contained everything in a specific sample dataset.

1:00When I uncompressed and turned it into CSV, the resulting file was about 1.

1:052 gigabytes for the CSV.

1:07So actually a very, very good compression format.

1:09Very similar to the Tableau data extract actually.

1:12Very efficient, but yeah, if you put a parquet file or CSV in an S3 bucket, you give the S3 bucket details, boom, you can connect to it

1:19This is nice because sometimes getting data in an S3 bucket is the default method for some enterprise companies.

1:25So just being able to leave it in the bucket

1:27and connect directly to it makes it much much easier and it means I hope that you can update the contents of the bucket dynamically using a process using some sort of uh capability in Amazon

1:38And you can just have tablet update on a refresh because the connector is just going to check that bucket and get the latest information.

1:44So again, a really, really nice capability

Discover Tableau’s new Amazon S3 connector, now in beta, allowing seamless connection and analysis of S3 data. I explain how to set up the connector, the types of data formats supported (CSV and Parquet), and the advantages of using compressed Parquet files for efficient data storage. Learn how enterprise companies benefit from this integration and the dynamic update capabilities of Tableau with S3 buckets.

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