A virtual or a dedicated hosting server is a standalone machine, that has its own Os and keeping the latter up-to-date is an important, albeit underrated task. Not simply can an update boost the performance of your sites, but it could also save you lots of issues down the road. An update may be released for several reasons, the most prevalent being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may enable third-party people to access and modify the content which you have on the server. You might also see an improved overall performance of your web programs as updates may also be released for better compatibility between the Os and the configuration it operates on so as to get the most out of the hardware. Furthermore, if you keep your applications up-to-date, they may need a later OS version which will have the necessary software dependencies and will permit them to operate adequately.