The Django web framework is an open-source Python-based framework that provides rapid development and clean, reusable code. It follows the Model-View-Template (MVT) design pattern and can support various web content formats such as HTML and XML. To deploy a Django application, supporting technologies like databases, web servers, and WSGI are required. Datadog is used to monitor Django performance, including metrics, logs, and request traces from the application, database, web server, and Gunicorn. The guide covers how to install and configure the Datadog Agent, integrate it with PostgreSQL, NGINX, and Gunicorn, and use it to collect custom Python metrics and events. It also provides examples of how to create a custom dashboard for Django applications.