Depends on the density of data manipulation, the server, the existing load on the server. You might consider using a different non-critical machine that works furiously doing all the munging/processing without affecting anybody else, then upload the processed results in the usual fashion.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
