diff --git a/services/web/server/docker/boot.sh b/services/web/server/docker/boot.sh
index bba8b4b6756..83e6ed5069c 100755
--- a/services/web/server/docker/boot.sh
+++ b/services/web/server/docker/boot.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ echo "$INFO" "Log-level app/server: $APP_LOG_LEVEL/$SERVER_LOG_LEVEL"
 # NOTE: the number of workers ```(2 x $num_cores) + 1``` is
 # the official recommendation [https://docs.gunicorn.org/en/latest/design.html#how-many-workers]
 # For now we set it to 1 to check what happens with websockets
+# SEE also https://docs.aiohttp.org/en/stable/deployment.html#start-gunicorn
 
 if [ "${SC_BOOT_MODE}" = "debug" ]; then
   # NOTE: ptvsd is programmatically enabled inside of the service
diff --git a/services/web/server/requirements/_base.txt b/services/web/server/requirements/_base.txt
index ab574d6c39f..a09dab37429 100644
--- a/services/web/server/requirements/_base.txt
+++ b/services/web/server/requirements/_base.txt
@@ -88,7 +88,6 @@ async-timeout==4.0.3
     # via
     #   aiohttp
     #   aiopg
-    #   redis
 asyncpg==0.27.0
     # via
     #   -r requirements/_base.in
@@ -167,7 +166,7 @@ frozenlist==1.4.1
     #   aiosignal
 greenlet==2.0.2
     # via sqlalchemy
-gunicorn==20.1.0
+gunicorn==23.0.0
     # via -r requirements/_base.in
 idna==3.3
     # via
@@ -272,10 +271,11 @@ orjson==3.10.0
     #   -r requirements/../../../../packages/simcore-sdk/requirements/../../../packages/models-library/requirements/_base.in
     #   -r requirements/../../../../packages/simcore-sdk/requirements/../../../packages/service-library/requirements/../../../packages/models-library/requirements/_base.in
     #   -r requirements/_base.in
-packaging==23.1
+packaging==24.1
     # via
     #   -r requirements/../../../../packages/simcore-sdk/requirements/_base.in
     #   -r requirements/_base.in
+    #   gunicorn
 pamqp==3.2.1
     # via aiormq
 passlib==1.7.4
@@ -399,11 +399,10 @@ rich==13.4.2
     #   -r requirements/../../../../packages/simcore-sdk/requirements/../../../packages/service-library/requirements/../../../packages/settings-library/requirements/_base.in
     #   -r requirements/../../../../packages/simcore-sdk/requirements/../../../packages/settings-library/requirements/_base.in
     #   typer
-setproctitle==1.2.3
+setproctitle==1.3.3
     # via gunicorn
 setuptools==69.1.1
     # via
-    #   gunicorn
     #   jsonschema
     #   openapi-spec-validator
 shellingham==1.5.4
diff --git a/services/web/server/requirements/_test.txt b/services/web/server/requirements/_test.txt
index 28185fac32f..046d1efecba 100644
--- a/services/web/server/requirements/_test.txt
+++ b/services/web/server/requirements/_test.txt
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ async-timeout==4.0.3
     # via
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
     #   aiohttp
-    #   redis
 asyncpg==0.27.0
     # via
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
@@ -115,7 +114,7 @@ openapi-spec-validator==0.4.0
     # via
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
     #   -r requirements/_test.in
-packaging==23.1
+packaging==24.1
     # via
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
     #   pytest
@@ -217,8 +216,6 @@ tenacity==8.5.0
     #   -r requirements/_test.in
 termcolor==2.4.0
     # via pytest-sugar
-tomli==2.0.1
-    # via coverage
 types-aiofiles==24.1.0.20240626
     # via -r requirements/_test.in
 types-jsonschema==4.23.0.20240813
diff --git a/services/web/server/requirements/_tools.txt b/services/web/server/requirements/_tools.txt
index 4d6682cf5c2..bad09bbc690 100644
--- a/services/web/server/requirements/_tools.txt
+++ b/services/web/server/requirements/_tools.txt
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ nodeenv==1.9.1
     # via pre-commit
 nose==1.3.7
     # via inotify
-packaging==23.1
+packaging==24.1
     # via
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
     #   -c requirements/_test.txt
@@ -81,14 +81,6 @@ setuptools==69.1.1
     #   -c requirements/_base.txt
     #   -c requirements/_test.txt
     #   pip-tools
-tomli==2.0.1
-    # via
-    #   -c requirements/_test.txt
-    #   black
-    #   build
-    #   mypy
-    #   pip-tools
-    #   pylint
 tomlkit==0.13.2
     # via pylint
 types-cachetools==5.5.0.20240820