Flash remoting.. and communication server

What exactly do flash remoting and com server do? I know that flashcom supports the multi-user thing for flash xmlsockets… on the macromedia products page, it says a lot more, but i don’t get a word of it. Same for remoting… “Flash Remoting allows your Flash applications to connect with your web server” doesn’t tell a lot. What practical uses can it be used for?

Thanks =)