1. An apparatus coupleable to a host computing system, the apparatus comprising: an input-output connector coupleable to a data network; a network interface circuit coupleable to a first PCIe communication line for communication with the host computing system, the network interface further having at least one communication port; a nonvolatile memory storing a configuration bit image; and a field programmable gate array coupled to the input-output connector and to the nonvolatile memory, the field programmable gate array further coupled to the network interface circuit through the at least one communication port, the field programmable gate array configurable using the configuration bit image to appear solely as a communication device to the network interface circuit when coupled to the at least one communication port, and the field programmable gate array configurable to bidirectionally monitor all data packets transferred between the input-output connector and the network interface circuit and the host computing system.