Salesforce announced today that it will be buying Tableau for $15.7 billion. To expand beyond the world of CRM tools, Salesforce is banking on the data visualization software company that allows users to parse through large datasets and display results visually. Previously Salesforce attempted to buy LinkedIn prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of the company. Both moves point to Salesforce long term strategy of expanding into many facets of the business data and analytics world.

Salesforce seems to be looking in the right direction. Global revenue for big data and business analytics has been creeping up year-over-year. In 2018, the industry brought in around $169 billion, with about $189 billion expected for 2019. Over the next few years, the industry is forecasted to take off. By 2022, IDC estimates that the big data and business analytics industry will bring in $274 billion, a 62 percent increase from 2018 revenue.