Apache Hadoop is an open-source software framework developed for storage and processing of large datasets on clusters of commodity hardware, initially created in 2005 to support the Nutch search engine project. The framework includes key modules such as HDFS for data storage, MapReduce for processing, and YARN for resource management, allowing for efficient distribution and scalability. Various tools and programming models like Apache Hive and Apache Spark further enhance its capabilities for data analysis and processing in a flexible and efficient manner.