A virtual or a dedicated server is a standalone machine, which has its own Operating System and keeping the latter up-to-date is a vital, although underestimated task. Not only can an update improve the general performance of your internet sites, but it will also save you lots of issues later on. An update may be released for a lot of reasons, the most common being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may allow third-party people to access and change the content you have on the server. You will also see an improved efficiency of your web apps as updates may also be released for better compatibility between the Operating System and the configuration it works on as a way to get the most out of the hardware. Additionally, if you keep your applications up-to-date, they might also need a later Operating system version that will have the needed software dependencies and will allow them to function adequately.