Solidworks and Networks

Just this week I made a discovery that SW does something I knew nothing about. I found that during a mate operation SW is accessing our network where the models are stored. This came about due to test I ran to see if performance on my desktop computer ran better connected or disconnected from the network. I first tested the mate operation with it connected and it took 200 seconds to do a coincident mate. The 2nd test involved the same mate done disconnected from the network and it took 20 seconds.

After speaking with the IT folks, I said I would test it connected again with Task Manger running to monitor the network connection. Much to my surprise, I saw SW accessing the network during the execution of the mate operation. Can anyone explain why this is happening? Currently our servers have hit 90% usage and management will not allow the purchase of a new server to spread the load due to additional users being added to the network.