The mass spectrometer 10 can include or communicate with an analysis module and/or circuit that can identify a substance by the obtained mass spectra. The analysis module or circuit can be onboard or at least partially remote from the spectrometer device 10. If the latter, the analysis module or circuit can reside totally or partially on a server. The server can be provided using cloud computing which includes the provision of computational resources on demand via a computer network. The resources can be embodied as various infrastructure services (e.g. computer, storage, etc.) as well as applications, databases, file services, email, etc. In the traditional model of computing, both data and software are typically fully contained on the user's computer; in cloud computing, the user's computer may contain little software or data (perhaps an operating system and/or web browser), and may serve as little more than a display terminal for processes occurring on a network of external computers. A cloud computing service (or an aggregation of multiple cloud resources) may be generally referred to as the “Cloud”. Cloud storage may include a model of networked computer data storage where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, rather than being hosted on one or more dedicated servers. Data transfer can be encrypted and can be done via the Internet using any appropriate firewalls, as suitable for the data collected.