What is the advantage of SFP ports on a Gigabit switch?

SFP ports enable Gigabit switches to connect to a wide variety of fiber and Ethernet cables in order to extend switching functionality throughout the network.

Small form-factor pluggable, or SFP, devices are hot-swappable I/O gear used primarily in network and storage switches; they allow the switch to connect to fiber cables of different types -- including single-mode and multimode -- and speeds (1 Gbps, 10 Gbps), or even Ethernet copper cables, such as CAT5e and CAT6.

Almost all enterprise-class switches include two or more SFP ports, allowing them to become part of a ring or star-based network topology spread among different buildings, floors or areas, and connected via fiber optic cabling.

In many cases, SFP ports are also known as mini-Gigabit interface converter (GBIC) modules, as they have replaced the older GBIC transceivers.

SFPs can be used and interchanged on a wide variety of products, and they can be interchanged in combinations of 1000BASE-T, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX/LH, 1000BASE-EX, 1000BASE-ZX or 1000BASE-BX10-D/U on a port-by-port basis.In many cases, SFP ports are also known as mini-Gigabit interface converter (GBIC) modules, as they have replaced the older GBIC transceivers.

Choose right SFP modules for your gigabit switches.

There are many vendors who manufacture SFP modules, Genuine brand and third-party.

Genuine Brands including Cisco, Arista Networks, Brocade, D-link, Extreme Networks, Force10 Networks, HPE, Intel, Juniper, Mellanox, Netgear, TP-Link, Ubiquiti Networks, all these work in their equipment without any issue. While it need higher budget than the third-party. If you would like to save budget in the infrastructure, the third-party would be a nice choice. Highly Recommended third-party Vendor "Macroreer", have been tested within lab, workstation, data center and so on... Lower budget for your construction.