Strapi is a Node.js Content Management Framework designed to create APIs in seconds, offering features like an Admin Panel, Authentication & Permissions management, and Content Management. To deploy a Strapi project for production on a clean Ubuntu server, developers need to install Node.js, MongoDB, and the necessary dependencies. They also need to configure the firewall rules and set up a reverse proxy using nginx. The process manager PM2 is used to ensure the app restarts automatically in case of crashes. After completing these steps, the Strapi API becomes accessible at `http://yourIP:1337`.