Recent results from LHCb and future prospects

A review of the operation and of the performance of the LHCb experiment at the LHC collider is presented, together with highlights of recent physics results based on the data collected in the 2011 run, which correspond to an integrated luminosity of ~1 fb^-^1. These measurements already have relevant implications on the contributions of New Physics processes in the field of rare b decays, and in the search for CP violation in B^0 and B_s^0 mesons decays. The prospects and the main items of the planned upgrade of LHCb are also discussed.