What is Photon
Databricks’ Photon engine isn’t just a minor update — it’s a complete rewrite of how we handle big data. While standard Spark relies on Java, Photon is built from the ground up in C++ to squeeze every drop of power out of modern hardware.
By using vectorized execution, it processes data in batches rather than one row at a time, drastically cutting down on CPU bottlenecks. In plain English? Your heaviest workloads run significantly faster and cost less to execute. This shift means less time waiting for queries to finish and more time actually using your data to drive decisions.