A virtual or a dedicated server is a standalone machine, that has its own Operating System and always keeping the latter up-to-date is an important, though underestimated task. Not simply can an update improve the general performance of your websites, but it could also save you lots of problems in the future. An update can be released for several reasons, the most common being to fix newly identified security holes, which may allow third-party people to access and alter the content which you have on the server. You will also see an improved overall performance of your web apps because updates may 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. Also, if you keep your programs up-to-date, they might also require a later Operating system version that will have the necessary software dependencies and will allow them to function properly.