A virtual or a dedicated hosting server is a standalone machine, that has its own Os and keeping the latter up-to-date is a vital, albeit underrated task. Not only can an update improve the performance of your internet sites, but it could also save you a lot of troubles in the future. An update can be released for a variety of reasons, the most common being to fix recently found security holes, which may permit third-party people to access and change the content which you have on the server. You may also see an improved overall performance of your web programs as updates could also be released for better compatibility between the Os and the configuration it functions on so that you can get the most out of the hardware. Also, if you keep your programs up-to-date, they may also require a later Operating system version that will have the necessary software dependencies and will allow them to operate effectively.