Modern data centers carry traffic volumes that leave no room for blind spots. With high-frequency trading platforms, cloud-native workloads, and distributed security tools all competing for visibility, a single missed packet can mean a missed threat -- or a compliance failure that costs millions.
Network TAPs give you passive, fail-safe access to every packet on every link, without impacting production traffic. Unlike Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) ports, TAPs never drop packets under load, never introduce processing overhead, and never create a single point of failure. For data center operators running 10G, 40G, 100G, or 400G infrastructure, TAP selection directly affects the accuracy of every monitoring and security tool downstream.
This guide compares six verified vendors offering purpose-built TAP solutions for data center environments. Each entry covers verified product specifications, key differentiators, and the use cases where each solution performs best.
| Vendor | Key Strength | Max Speed Supported |
|---|---|---|
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Modular scale-out architecture, hybrid TAP and packet broker in one chassis |
Up to 400G |
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Deep Observability Pipeline integration, passive and active TAP portfolio |
Up to 400G |
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Highest-density TAP on the market, 36 TAPs per 1U |
Up to 400G |
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Purpose-built TAP designs, strong bypass and aggregation portfolio |
Up to 100G |
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Carrier-grade optical TAPs, individual certification per unit |
Up to 400G |
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TAPs integrated with nGenius service assurance platform |
Up to 400G |
Network Critical delivers a modular, scale-out approach to data center TAP deployment that combines access, aggregation, and packet brokering in a single chassis. The SmartNA-PortPlus scales from 48 to 194 ports across 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G speeds in a 1RU chassis. For 400G environments, the SmartNA-PortPlus HyperCore supports 32 QSFP-DD interfaces and 25.6 Tbps aggregate backplane throughput.
The SmartNA-XL handles environments spanning 1G to 40G with hot-swappable TAP modules covering passive fiber, active copper, and bypass configurations. All platforms run Drag-n-Vu, Network Critical's patented graphical management interface. Drag-n-Vu uses embedded rule-generation algorithms to eliminate manual filter configuration errors. An open Representational State Transfer (RESTful) API enables automated port mapping and filtering, integrating directly with security platforms such as Darktrace.
The hybrid network TAP and packet broker architecture means organizations don't need separate chassis for access and aggregation. This reduces rack space, power draw, and operational complexity in high-density data center environments.
Proven Results:
Gigamon positions its TAP portfolio as the access layer for its Deep Observability Pipeline, feeding traffic intelligence to security, monitoring, and analytics tools across physical and cloud environments.
The G-TAP M Series covers passive optical deployments for highly sensitive and mission-critical applications. Unidirectional variants enforce strict one-way data flow from network to monitoring tool, adding a hardware-level security guarantee. The G-TAP A Series 2 addresses environments where passive tapping is impractical, offering active TAPs with battery backup and fail-to-wire capability. Management integrates with GigaVUE-FM fabric manager via CLI. For cloud and container environments, the GigaVUE Universal Cloud Tap (UCT) captures North-South and East-West lateral traffic across AWS, Azure, GCP, and VMware platforms, including Kubernetes environments.
Gigamon tests every TAP it manufactures and ships verified optical loss values with each unit. This individual testing approach reduces deployment risk in high-sensitivity data center fiber runs.
Keysight Technologies brings a test equipment heritage to network TAP design. The result is a portfolio with verified specs, multi-speed flexibility, and the highest port density available from any TAP vendor.
The Flex Tap VHD accommodates up to 36 TAPs in a 19-inch 1U chassis -- the highest density available in the market. This makes it particularly suited to high-density data center core and aggregation deployments where rack space is a limiting constraint. Keysight TAPs support copper and both multimode and single-mode optical fiber at speeds from 1G to 400G. Cisco BiDi optics support is verified, covering environments with non-standard transceiver requirements.
The iLink Aggregator series combines inline tapping with fail-to-wire copper bypass. The iLink LA2-INLN-T includes eight inline copper TAPs and four SFP+ monitor ports in a single unit, reducing the infrastructure needed to connect monitoring tools at the access layer. Keysight maintains extensive inventory for fast shipment, reducing lead times on data center deployment projects.
Garland Technology focuses exclusively on network visibility, with a product line built around TAP, aggregation, and bypass functions. Garland's TAP portfolio covers passive fiber from 1G to 100G, active copper with fail-safe technology, and bypass TAPs for inline security tool deployment.
The aggregation TAP range consolidates traffic from multiple tapped links into a single monitoring tool port. This reduces tool costs in data centers where deploying a monitoring appliance on every link is not economical. Regeneration TAPs allow a single tapped link to feed multiple downstream tools simultaneously without introducing contention or dropping packets.
Garland's EdgeLens series integrates TAP and packet broker functions in a purpose-built chassis. EdgeLens supports filtering and load balancing to distribute specific traffic flows across multiple security tools. The FieldTAP portable product line addresses temporary deployment needs during data center migrations, commissioning, or incident response. Garland maintains an extensive partner ecosystem and provides detailed technical resources for TAP deployment in complex enterprise environments.
Cubro Network Visibility specializes in carrier-grade optical TAPs built for demanding data center and service provider environments. Every Cubro optical TAP is individually tested and shipped with a measurement protocol documenting actual insertion loss values -- a quality assurance step that reduces risk in high-sensitivity optical deployments.
The OptoSlim TAP Series offers passive optical monitoring access in a thin and stackable 1/3 RU form factor. Up to three OptoSlim TAPs fit in a single rack unit, achieving high port density without the chassis overhead of competing solutions. The 400G SR8 TAPs support passive breakout tapping on 400G SR8 links. MTP/MPO TAPs support 40G SR, 40G PSM4, 100G SR4, 100G PSM4, 400G DR4, and 400G XDR4 optical variants. All Cubro optical TAPs are fully transparent to speeds from 10 Mbps to 400G -- no reconfiguration is required as link speeds change.
Cubro's Vitrum management software provides centralized visibility and control across its TAP and NPB product portfolio. The platform offers topology visualization and multi-user management, streamlining operations in environments with large numbers of deployed TAP points.
NETSCOUT integrates its TAP portfolio with the nGenius service assurance platform, making it a practical choice for organizations that need TAP access to feed performance management and service delivery tooling alongside security monitoring.
NETSCOUT fiber TAPs support LC and MPO multimode and single-mode fiber configurations, with variable optical split ratios. A rack-mount chassis accommodates up to 24 TAPs in 1RU -- a competitive density figure for environments deploying large numbers of fiber TAP points. Copper TAPs support 10Mbps, 100Mbps, and 1Gbps copper networks, with redundant power supply options including battery backup. The PowerSafe TAP line adds active-inline bypass functionality for environments deploying inline security appliances. NETSCOUT's nGenius Packet Flow Switches support speeds from 1G to 400G, extending the TAP access layer into packet brokering and traffic distribution for downstream tools. The nGenius Cloud vTAP fills cloud visibility gaps in environments using Microsoft Azure, operating as a cloud-agnostic traffic mirroring solution.
Data centers run a mix of copper and fiber at varying speeds. Passive fiber TAPs require no power and introduce no failure modes, but they consume optical budget -- you need to verify that your optics and cabling have sufficient power margin for your chosen split ratio. Active copper TAPs negotiate link speed and provide fail-to-wire protection, ensuring traffic continues if the TAP loses power. Identify your dominant link types and speeds before shortlisting vendors.
Traffic volumes in data centers double roughly every two to three years. A TAP that handles your current 10G or 40G links may become a bottleneck as you migrate to 100G or 400G infrastructure. Prioritize vendors with TAP portfolios that span your current and anticipated speeds, and check whether your chosen solution supports mixed-speed deployments in a single chassis. Replacing TAP infrastructure is costly and disruptive -- selecting for your three-to-five-year roadmap avoids premature refresh cycles.
High-density data centers operate under strict space constraints. The number of TAP ports per rack unit varies significantly across vendors:
Calculate your total TAP point count, then work backwards to determine the minimum rack space requirement for each vendor's solution.
Standalone TAPs deliver the access function only -- they need a separate packet broker to aggregate, filter, and distribute traffic to multiple tools. Hybrid TAP and packet broker architectures combine both functions in a single chassis, reducing the number of devices, cables, and management interfaces in your visibility stack. For data centers with more than a handful of monitoring tools, a hybrid architecture typically delivers lower total cost of ownership and faster deployment.
Manual TAP configuration at scale is error-prone and slow. Look for:
Automation matters most in environments where security tools need to dynamically adjust the traffic they receive -- for example, AI-driven threat detection platforms that update their own filtering rules in response to detected anomalies.
Regulated industries including financial services, healthcare, and government operate under data handling mandates that directly affect TAP selection. Consider whether your chosen solution supports:
A network TAP is a passive hardware device that creates an exact copy of traffic passing through a network link and sends that copy to monitoring or security tools. The original traffic reaches its intended destination without interruption. TAPs connect inline between two network endpoints -- a switch and a router, for example -- and provide full-duplex visibility to all attached monitoring tools simultaneously. Because they operate at the physical layer, they cannot be detected, hacked, or overloaded by the traffic they monitor.
A network TAP provides 100% packet capture with zero packet loss, regardless of link utilization. A Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) port mirrors traffic in software on a switch, and will drop packets under high load to prioritize production forwarding. SPAN ports also consume switch CPU resources, introduce potential latency, and typically cannot capture physical layer errors. For any use case where complete and accurate packet capture is required -- security monitoring, forensic investigation, or compliance recording -- a hardware TAP is the correct solution.
This depends on the number of links you need to monitor and the architecture of your visibility infrastructure. Organizations typically deploy TAPs at perimeter links, data center interconnects, and any link carrying traffic relevant to compliance or security monitoring. With aggregation and packet broker functionality, a single monitoring tool can serve multiple TAP points -- reducing total tool count while maintaining complete visibility. A network visibility audit will identify the minimum set of TAP locations needed to eliminate blind spots without over-instrumenting the environment. Network Critical offers free network audits to help organizations map their TAP requirements accurately.
In most data center environments, yes. TAPs provide the access layer -- they copy traffic from the link. A packet broker aggregates that traffic from multiple TAPs, filters it, and distributes relevant subsets to each monitoring tool. Without a packet broker, each monitoring tool must process all traffic from every TAP it connects to, leading to tool overload and missed events. Organizations with more than two or three monitoring tools -- or running tools at different speeds than their network links -- will see significant efficiency gains from deploying network packet brokers alongside their TAP infrastructure.
Modern data center TAPs support speeds from 10Mbps copper through to 400G fiber, including 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G. Support for 400G is available from vendors including Network Critical, Keysight, Gigamon, Cubro, and NETSCOUT. Check that your chosen TAP is certified for the specific optical variant in use on your link -- 400G SR8, 400G DR4, and 400G LR4 each require different TAP optics. Passive optical TAPs are transparent to speed and do not require reconfiguration as link speeds change, provided the optical power budget is sufficient.
Passive fiber TAPs require no power at all and will continue to pass traffic regardless of power conditions. Active copper TAPs include fail-to-wire circuitry that maintains the live link if power is lost, though monitoring visibility may be reduced during a power event. Many active TAP vendors offer battery backup options to maintain full visibility during brief power interruptions. For mission-critical data center links where monitoring continuity during power events is required, specify fail-safe and power backup requirements explicitly when evaluating TAP solutions.
Choosing the right TAP is a long-term infrastructure decision. The wrong choice means costly replacement cycles, blind spots in your security coverage, or monitoring tools that consistently miss the events they were deployed to catch.
Network Critical's modular scale-out architecture lets you start with the ports you need today and expand incrementally -- adding capacity without replacing existing hardware or disrupting operations. The combination of network TAP and packet broker functionality in a single chassis simplifies your visibility stack and reduces total cost of ownership across large data center deployments. With verified deployments at HSBC, Vodafone, BP, and Airbus, Network Critical brings proven enterprise-scale performance to every project.
Talk to the Network Critical team to discuss your data center TAP requirements and request a free network audit.