The present invention discloses a data switching apparatus and system, where the data switching apparatus includes: an optical-to-electrical conversion unit, an identification unit, an electrical switching unit, an electrical-to-optical conversion unit, an optical switching control unit, and an optical switching unit. The optical-to-electrical conversion unit is configured to perform optical-to-electrical conversion on a first optical data packet and an optical label, where the optical label carries switching information of a second optical data packet, and the first optical data packet and the second optical data packet are respectively to-be-switched data packets that need to use electrical packet switching and optical packet switching. The identification unit is configured to identify whether an electrical signal output by the optical-to-electrical conversion unit is from the optical label or the first optical data packet.