Methods and systems for protocol offload and direct I/O with I/O sharing in a virtualized network environment are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a plurality of GOSs sharing a single network interface circuitry, or a network interface card, (NIC) that may provide access to a network. The NIC may directly handle processing of data to be transmitted to the network and/or data received from the network for each of the GOSs without a TGOS for the GOSs handling the data to be transmitted to the network and/or data received from the network. The data may be copied directly from a buffer in the single NIC to an application buffer for one of the plurality of GOSs and/or directly from an application buffer for one of the plurality of GOSs to the buffer in the single NIC.