1. An apparatus comprising: an input-output connector coupleable to a data network; a first network interface circuit coupleable to a first PCIe communication line for communication with a host computing system, the first 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 first 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 first 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 first network interface circuit and any coupled host computing system.