1. A method for monitoring the contents of network traffic in a network device, the method comprising: collecting, in substantially real-time using at least one of: a kernel space driver interface, network traffic data sent by the network device, and network traffic data received at the network device; parsing the collected network traffic data, wherein parsing comprises: extracting, from the collected network traffic data, transaction data corresponding to at least one logical transaction defined by a network protocol, and storing an indicator of a quantity of the collected network traffic data that was consumed; and generating an event incorporating the extracted transaction data, wherein the collecting network traffic data, parsing the collected network traffic data, and generating an event comprise operations performed using at least one computer processor, and wherein collecting network traffic data comprises collecting network traffic data according to at least one predicate, the at least one predicate corresponding to at least one characteristic of network traffic data to be collected.