If you’ve spent any time at all waiting for virus software to scan your PC, you’ve probably felt some frustration and annoyance at the process.

But if you’re system’s ever been hit by malware or an aggressive virus, you’ve probably been glad you have that scanning software.

There is a better way of managing the problem, though. A new slate of virus protection offerings can scan a system in a flash — and you’ll never be interrupted by the process.

The solution: Filtering through “the cloud.”

That would be the computing cloud, the latest Web incarnation that allows processing to take place on distant computers instead of your own system.

Here’s how it works: “Trojan” and other types of malware are filtered on remote servers that the PC is connected to via the Web.

The system scans every new application running on every PC to determine if something harmful’s lurking. When it does, the user gets an alert. The best part? It’s done in milliseconds.

Considering that there are an estimated 50,000 new cyberthreats a day, it’s worth a tech team looking into the option.

Tags: cloud computing, data center, malware, PCs, scanning, virus