Ruby on Rails is a powerful, open-source, full-stack framework for developing database intensive web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.

This architecture separates an application's data model, user interface, and control logic into three distinct components so that modifications to one component can be made with minimal impact to the others.
Advantages of using Ruby on Rails As a business owner, Ruby on Rails offers you two important benefits which are:

Improved Productivity
Ruby is a simple, light weight and effective framework for development of web based applications that need to “talk” to a database. It hides a lot of complexity of internal implementation and frees up time for the developer to focus on the business logic and its implementation.

Cost Savings
Since the developer can deliver more in the amount of time that he works, the number of hours required to do a particular job is dramatically reduced and hence adopting Ruby on Rails saves you a lot of money.
Why is Ruby on Rails so effective? It’s Based on Ruby
Ruby on Rails is really an extension of Ruby programming language. Ruby is a very powerful and feature rich programming language.

Implements MVC Framework
Rail is actually a Model-View-Controller framework for Ruby. This separates The GUI, The Business Logic and The Data in three distinct and separated tiers.

Reflection and Discovery
Rails use intelligent reflection and discovery to automatically map relational database tables to Ruby objects. Thus, the application code and the running database already contain everything Rails needs to know.

Less Coding
Rails require lesser amount of code to implement the business logic. A lot of lower level details are actually hidden and is handled automatically. Since, the amount of written code is less, the time required to test the application is also less.

Automated Operations
Rails can automatically generate CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update and Delete) code for the applications. Thus, you can incrementally update the database and views to meet the changing business requirements.

Simplified Testing
In Rails all new controllers, models, and scaffolding also creates corresponding unit test skeletons. Apart from that the strict MVC architecture tends to naturally result in testable actions and components. Rails also include a Rake (Ruby Make) script that will automatically run all unit tests.