Apache Phoenix is a SQL query layer over Apache HBase that allows users to interact with HBase through JDBC and SQL. It transforms SQL queries into native HBase API calls for efficient parallel execution on the cluster. Phoenix provides metadata storage, SQL support, and a JDBC driver. It is now a top-level Apache project after originally being developed at Salesforce. The speaker discussed Phoenix's capabilities like joins and subqueries, new features like HBase 1.0 support and functional indexes, and future plans like improved optimization through Calcite and transaction support.