Synthetic Monitoring
In plain terms
Testing systems with simulated user interactions.
Going deeper
Synthetic monitoring runs scripted, automated transactions against a system to proactively detect issues before real users hit them. It probes from the outside.
Under the hood
Catches problems during low traffic and from many locations; complements real-user monitoring.
Examples
Uptime checks, scripted transactions, proactive monitoring, global probes.
Think of it like...
Like a mystery shopper regularly testing your store to catch problems first.