what is synthetic monitoring

Synthetic monitoring is a monitoring technique used in software design, web design, and electronic product design. It is a method of monitoring applications by simulating user interactions with a system. Synthetic monitoring uses scripts to generate simulated user behavior for different scenarios, geographic locations, device types, and other variables. This type of monitoring does not require actual traffic, thus the name synthetic, so it enables companies to test applications 24x7, or test new applications prior to a live customer-facing launch. Synthetic monitoring enables a webmaster or an IT/Operations professional to identify problems and determine if a website or application is slow or experiencing downtime before that problem affects actual end users or customers. Synthetic monitoring is useful for measuring uptime, availability, and response time of critical pages and transactions. It can also be used to validate system performance and identify potential issues before they impact the actual end-user experience. Synthetic monitoring can be applied inside the firewall - within the data center to ensure that all the machines are running properly, or outside the firewall to provide information about availability and performance from a global perspective. Synthetic monitoring is not the only way to monitor a website or application. Developers and QA engineers can also perform what is known as passive or real user monitoring.