A virtual or a dedicated hosting server is a standalone machine, which has its own Os and maintaining the latter up-to-date is an important, though underestimated task. Not simply can an update boost the general performance of your websites, but it could also save you a great deal of problems in the future. An update may be released for a number of reasons, the most widespread being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may allow third-party people to access and alter the content which you have on the server. You might also see an improved overall performance of your web applications because updates can 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. Moreover, if you keep your programs up-to-date, they may also need a later Operating system version which will have the needed software dependencies and will enable them to work adequately.