Thank you so much for pinning your query here. The solution like you mentioned is possible. KNIME Server in nutshell lets you do exactly what you require and plus a lot more.
However, if KNIME Server is not an option then, you can move data to any database server, for instance MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle etc. Then you can use the extensive collection of “DB” based nodes to do your computations on the server and control workflows from your pc. This is one work around I know of in this case.