Authorized simulated attack on a system to find security vulnerabilities. Like hiring friendly burglars to test your security system and find weaknesses.
Companies hire ethical hackers to perform penetration testing on their web applications before going live.
Penetration testing is a security practice, not a single cloud service. All major cloud providers support it through rules-of-engagement policies, logging/monitoring tools, and partner ecosystems (e.g., approved third-party pentest vendors and marketplaces). You typically use native services for identity, logging, and network controls during a test rather than a dedicated “pentest service.”