A virtual or a dedicated hosting server is a standalone machine, that has its own Os and keeping the latter up-to-date is an important, albeit underrated task. Not only can an update boost the general performance of your sites, but it will also save you lots of troubles later on. An update could be released for a lot of reasons, the most prevalent being to fix newly identified security holes, which may allow third-party people to access and modify the content which you have on the hosting machine. You will also see an improved functionality of your web apps because updates may also be released for better compatibility between the Operating System and the configuration it functions on as a way to get the most out of the hardware. Moreover, if you keep your applications up-to-date, they may also require a later Operating system version which will have the necessary software dependencies and will enable them to operate effectively.