A data processing apparatus and a data processing method are provided. The apparatus includes M protocol stacks and at least one distribution service module, and the M protocol stacks separately run on different logic cores of a processor and are configured to independently perform protocol processing on a data packet to be processed. The distribution service module receives an input data packet from a network interface and sends the data packet to one of the M protocol stacks for protocol processing, and receives data packets processed by the M protocol stacks and sends the data packets outwards through the network interface. The present disclosure implements a function of parallel protocol processing by multiple processes in user space of an operating system in a multi-core environment by using a parallel processing feature of a multi-core system, thereby reducing resource consumption caused by data packet copying.