A virtual or a dedicated hosting machine is a standalone machine, that has its own Operating System and keeping the latter up-to-date is a vital, though underrated task. Not only can an update improve the functionality of your websites, but it could also save you lots of problems down the road. An update may be released for several reasons, the most prevalent being to fix recently discovered security holes, which may permit third-party individuals to access and modify the content which you have on the server. You will also see an improved efficiency of your web applications as updates may also be released for better compatibility between the Os and the configuration it operates on as a way to get the most out of the hardware. Also, if you keep your programs up-to-date, they could also need a later Operating system version that will have the required software dependencies and will permit them to work properly.