But essentially you're right: anything that allows you to distinguish your core business from other peoples' efforts is something you should do yourself. All too often, people look at their IT budgets, go, "this isn't our core business", and outsource stuff they shouldn't. If you work in a time critical environment, don't outsource things on your critical path, because EDS will never jump as quickly or as high as your internal staff. Doing core functions yourself and outsourcing everything else is good business. Core functions are where you create sustainable competitive advantage, which is where market value comes from. If you outsource your competitive advantages, they won't be sustainable. Michael Porter wrote an excellent article in HBR a few years back on a similar topic (but not at all about code reuse, of course). He argued that 'operational effectiveness', which is what you get when you use the same system everyone else in the ind...