1. A data processing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of network interfaces that are configured to be coupled to a data network for receiving one or more packets therefrom and sending one or more packets thereto; one or more hardware processors; a switching system coupled to the one or more hardware processors and packet forwarding logic, wherein the switching system and packet forwarding logic are configured to receive packets on a first network interface, determine a second network interface on which to send the packets, and to send the packets on the second network interface; application message transformation logic comprising one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause: receiving one or more packets representing an input application message from a sender application to a receiver application; extracting an application message payload from the input application message; identifying one or more first content elements in the application message payload, wherein the one or more first content elements comprise a first field and a second field; wherein the first field is before the second field in the one or more first content elements; transforming the one or more first content elements into one or more second content elements of an output application message at least in part by: reordering at least the first field and the second field to an order that is expected by the receiver application, wherein the first field is after the second field in the one or more second content elements; and performing a transformation based on code page translation, wherein the code page translation includes mapping the one or more first content elements to a locale-specific content encoding, wherein the locale-specific content encoding includes elements representing times, dates, or calendar entries; forwarding the output application message to a destination that is identified in the input application message.