What does the Photon Engine do in Databricks SQL Serverless?

The Photon Engine significantly boosts the performance of queries executed in Databricks SQL Serverless. It is a high-performance query engine specifically designed to optimize the execution of SQL queries, leveraging vectorized execution and other advanced techniques to reduce latency and increase throughput. This results in faster query processing, allowing users to efficiently analyze large datasets and gain insights in real-time. Photon’s architecture is built to take advantage of modern hardware, making it particularly effective in cloud environments where resources can be dynamically allocated.

While managing user access, providing a graphical user interface, and ensuring data security are important aspects of any data platform, they are not the primary functions of the Photon Engine. Instead, those responsibilities typically fall under other components of the Databricks ecosystem that focus on security, user management, and the overall user experience. Therefore, the role of the Photon Engine is specifically tied to enhancing query performance, making it critical for users who need to execute complex queries quickly and efficiently.