Outsourcing Processing/Storage
 

I got an idea about somehow having a laptop set up more or less as a "frontend" to an onsite server. The laptop would only need to be powerful enough to send/receive data to and from the server via a wireless network. The server would have a pretty hefty amount of storage and processing power. I know you can map a network drive, but that only solves the storage part. Is it feasible to outsource processing needs?

EDIT: This may be better suited for the IT / Communications forum.