Automate Your Tableau to Looker Migration with the SquareShift Accelerator
- SquareShift Content Team
- Jul 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 18
How It Works and Why It Stands Apart
Tableau to Looker migration has become a necessary step for businesses outgrowing workbook-based analytics. Tableau helped many businesses explore data visually, but maintaining consistent definitions and governing dashboards at scale has become harder over time.
The Tableau to Looker Migration represents a foundational change in organizational business intelligence strategy. This move doesn't diminish Tableau's capabilities but rather reflects the matured requirements of enterprise BI, shifting focus from ad-hoc visualization to centralized governance, reusable semantic layers, and scalable embedded analytics.
Why Tableau and Looker Work Differently
Tableau supports interactive, visual-first data exploration. Users build dashboards directly by dragging and dropping data fields. While this is useful for discovery, it often leads to fragmented logic and inconsistent metric definitions across teams.
In contrast, Looker operates on the principle of a semantic layer, using LookML to define data relationships and business logic once and apply them everywhere. This ensures uniform metrics across dashboards and improves scalability.
For example:
Tableau’s Level of Detail (LOD) expressions allow custom aggregations regardless of what’s shown in a chart.
In Looker, those become reusable LookML measures that can be used across dashboards without being redefined.
Logic moves out of individual dashboards and into a centralized, governed model.
What Makes the SquareShift Accelerator Useful
The Looker migration accelerator aids in converting Tableau's visual logic into LookML-driven, scalable dashboards. It does more than simply rebuild charts. It assesses each one's intent and matches it to Looker's capabilities.
1. Scans Before It Converts
The tool reads your Tableau TWB files, detects chart types, calculated fields, and data sources, then flags repeated patterns. If five workbooks define “Customer Lifetime Value” differently, it recommends a single governed definition. 2. Chart Mapping Logic
The Accelerator comes with a visualization remapper for Looker. This maps Tableau visuals to Looker-native ones or plugin-based equivalents.
Examples include:
Treemaps and bar charts move over directly to Looker.
Bump charts or Sankey diagrams use Looker marketplace visualizations or plugins to retain analytical intent.
For visuals like dual-axis charts, the tool generates structured LookML to reflect the logic rather than duplicating the layout. This preserves the analytical value, even when the visual style changes.
Process Flow and Key Features of Tableau to Looker Accelerator
The Accelerator follows a structured process flow that accelerates migration from Tableau (TWB) files to Looker dashboards, views, and models. The tool is hosted on Google Cloud Platform, ensuring scalability and security throughout the migration process. Key features of the Looker migration accelerator include:
Automated parsing of Tableau workbook files
Systematic identification of visualization types and data sources
Dependency mapping across dashboards
The core Visualization Re-mapper component
Pattern recognition and consolidation across similar calculated fields or dashboards
These features enable a faster, smarter migration with less manual work and clearer visibility into your BI ecosystem.
Handling Complex Features in Tableau
Some Tableau features, especially those that rely on flexibility and ad hoc calculations, require extra care.
The Accelerator addresses:
LOD expressions, by converting them into semantic-layer logic using views or pre-aggregated tables.
Calculated fields, by converting them into governed LookML dimensions or measures.
Dual-axis visuals, by separating series cleanly and assigning them within LookML.
When automated conversion isn’t possible, the tool flags the case for manual review so your team focuses only where human judgment is required.
Building a Future-Ready BI Stack with Looker
The migration is intended to provide a solid basis for updating your business intelligence capabilities with Looker, not just to migrate current dashboards.
The LookML code generated by this tool adheres to clean, performance-optimized patterns, ensuring your data models are efficient and reliable. This includes:
Proper aggregation logic: Ensuring calculations are accurate and consistent across your data.
Accurate data typing: Correctly defining data types for optimal performance and integrity.
Logical model structure: Organizing your data models for clarity, maintainability, and scalability.
The tool also supports embedded analytics via Looker’s API, iFrame, and Extension Framework. That means your dashboards can be embedded directly into customer portals or internal tools.
A Scalable Migration Approach
Organizations commonly adopt a phased strategy for migration, and the Looker migration tool facilitates this process by:
Identifying high-impact dashboards for initial migration: Allowing for a strategic prioritization of critical assets.
Automating 60–80% of the workload: Significantly reducing manual effort and accelerating the transition.
Supporting iterative validation with integrated QA tooling: Enabling thorough testing and refinement throughout each phase.
Weeks of work are saved, and your analysts may concentrate on optimization rather than rework.
Long-Term Gains from the Migration Accelerator
Following the migration, organizations consistently report significant long-term benefits, including:
Improved data trust across departments
Easier onboarding of new dashboards
Reduced time spent on rectifying broken logic or outdated charts
Teams benefit from decreased infrastructure requirements and lower maintenance costs. By utilizing Looker embedded analytics, your team can transition from isolated reports to integrated workflows.
Additionally, by automating repetitive migration activities, the Accelerator frees up time for creativity. Skilled individuals can go from maintenance to modeling and developing new use cases.
If you're still maintaining Tableau dashboards while thinking about the next step, now’s the time. Our accelerator blends AI automation with expert review to get you there faster and with precision.
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