It always astonishes me to hear people defend the need to manage corporate information internally, yet they outsource the most sensitive data of all... their paycheck!

For example, here is one persons response to replacing their Exchange email server with a Google solution:

"Rule #1 of corporate America - Proprietary information does not leave the company boundaries unless an NDA is in place. Proprietary information is only given under NDA if strictly necessary.

These decisions are made by upper management and lawyers, not IT. There is no way in hell that my company would EVER move to an externally hosted solution.

In addition, having critical services hosted externally is Just Plain Stupid."

My experience has been 4 out 5 of these companies already outsource their payroll to someone like ADP. Ahhh... the irony.

I'm starting to wonder if Nicholas Carr's assertion that the IT Emperor has no clothes is true. Corporate America is entering an era of operational innovation, not feature innovation, and operational innovation requires managing your IT services as you would your electric and water bills; repeatable, reliable, and managed by specialists.

There is a definite fear of looking incompetent if you suggest outsourcing something as fundamental as Email or CRM to an outside provider, but there is no rational logic for rejecting this option.