Managed

In networking, ‘managed’  refers to components and services that can be centrally configured, monitored and administered. Compared with an unmanaged variant, a managed switch provides functions such as VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, quality of service, port security, SNMP monitoring and access via web interface, CLI or controller. This allows network segments to be separated, priorities to be set for voice and video traffic, and faults to be isolated precisely. In the services sector, managed services describe the handover of operation, monitoring and maintenance to an external provider under contractually defined service levels. For organisations, using managed components means greater transparency, improved control and higher operational reliability. Unmanaged devices remain an option for simple, small network segments without specific requirements.