A virtual or a dedicated server is a standalone machine, that has its own Operating System and always keeping the latter up-to-date is an important, though underestimated task. Not only can an update improve the functionality of your internet sites, but it will also save you a lot of troubles later on. An update could be released for several reasons, the most frequent being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may enable third-party people to access and change the content you have on the hosting machine. You may also see an improved performance of your web applications because updates might also be released for better compatibility between the Operating System and the configuration it operates on so that you can get the most out of the hardware. Moreover, if you keep your applications up-to-date, they could need a later Operating system version which will have the required software dependencies and will allow them to work properly.