A virtual or a dedicated hosting server is a standalone machine, which has its own Operating System and maintaining the latter up-to-date is a crucial, although underestimated task. Not only can an update enhance the general performance of your sites, but it can also save you a great deal of issues in the future. An update can be released for a number of reasons, the most prevalent being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may enable third-party individuals to access and modify the content which you have on the hosting machine. You may also see an improved functionality of your web applications as updates could also be released for better compatibility between the Os and the configuration it works on as a way to get the most out of the hardware. Additionally, if you keep your programs up-to-date, they might also need a later Operating system version which will have the necessary software dependencies and will enable them to operate adequately.