A virtual or a dedicated server is a standalone machine, that has its own Operating System and keeping the latter up-to-date is an essential, although underrated task. Not simply can an update improve the general performance of your sites, but it will also save you a great deal of troubles later on. An update can be released for a lot of reasons, the most prevalent being to fix recently found security holes, which may enable third-party individuals to access and change the content which you have on the hosting machine. You will also see an improved efficiency of your web apps because updates can also be released for better compatibility between the Os and the configuration it works on so as to get the most out of the hardware. Additionally, if you keep your apps up-to-date, they might also require a later OS version that will have the needed software dependencies and will permit them to operate properly.