An optical transceiver is provided that includes a transceiver substrate arranged substantially perpendicular to longitudinal axes respectively defined by a transmit optical subassembly and receive optical subassembly. The transceiver substrate is configured to electrically and physically connect to the transmit optical subassembly and the receive optical subassembly, and includes a connector configured and arranged to interface with a host bus adapter. The combination of the host bus adapter and optical transceiver is sized and configured to be received within a standard slot of a host system, such as a PCI or PCMCIA slot. In this way, one or more optical connections are integrated within the host device or system.