Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine that allows JavaScript to run on the server. It is commonly used for building web servers and networking applications. Node.js uses an asynchronous event-driven model that makes it lightweight and efficient for data-intensive real-time applications. The ecosystem of Node.js modules and frameworks like Express, Restify, and Hapi support building many types of applications beyond just web servers, including desktop apps, IoT devices, and command line tools. Node.js development is module-driven using the npm registry, which has over 150,000 packages and sees high growth in usage. The future of Node.js involves continued improvements to asynchronous programming, support