Because of their high port densities compared to discreet Taps, they save rack space and power, and can have a lower price per port.
They are fully passive, unable to disrupt network traffic in anythe most commonly found circumstances. (Integrated Taps, if present have fail-to-wire on power failure.) This is compared to SPAN ports, where network traffic can be disrupted if the switch is not properly configured while setting up the SPAN port. <ref>[http://www.ebizq.net/topics/business_service_management/features/11496.html?page=1 Integrating Monitoring Access Into The Network Architecture]</ref>
