Apache Arrow is an open-source project that aims to provide a standardized columnar memory format for flat and hierarchical data, making analytics workloads more efficient for modern CPU and GPU hardware. It solves the problem of performance overhead involved with moving data between different tools and systems as part of data processing pipelines by creating a common standard for transferring and manipulating large amounts of data efficiently. By adopting Arrow, developers can experience significant performance gains due to its column-based format, which is designed for modern CPUs and GPUs, allowing for parallel processing and reducing memory requirements. Additionally, Arrow integrates well with other projects like Apache Parquet, making it easier to manage the life cycle and movement of data between systems. The project has gained major adoption and features a growing ecosystem of tools and languages that can use the Arrow format, making it a lingua franca for data transfer and manipulation.