Erlang is a programming language designed for building scalable and fault-tolerant systems, particularly in telecommunications. Developed in the 1980s by Ericsson, it supports concurrent programming, allowing multiple processes to run simultaneously without interfering with each other. This makes it ideal for applications that require high availability and reliability. One of the key features of Erlang is its lightweight process model, which enables developers to create thousands of processes that can communicate with each other. Additionally, Erlang includes built-in support for distributed computing, making it easier to develop applications that can run on multiple machines.