L2-Managed switches let users adjust each port on the switch to any setting, enabling them to manage, configure and monitor the network in many ways. They also provide greater control over how data travels over the network and who can access that data.

Managed switches generally offer Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which enables users to monitor the statuses of the switch and individual switch ports and provides statistics like traffic throughput, network errors and port status. Network admins can track this data over time and use it for both troubleshooting and network capacity purposes.

Managed switch ports can be configured as trunks, a process that tags data frames with a VLAN ID and transports multiple VLAN frames across a single link.