surveyed IT professionals at the InfoSecurity Europe 2012 conference and found that 71 percent of organizations outsource a "significant portion" of their IT needs. However, confidence in outsourcing is not as high as you'd think.

Although outsourcing is often seen as a cost-cutting measure, 42 percent of the survey respondents reported that ended up costing more than originally planned--16 percent claimed the costs were "significantly more". That doesn't necessarily mean that it was more expensive than hiring, training, and retaining in-house talent for the same project, but it still reflects poorly on IT outsourcing in general.

More concerning than cost is quality and trust. A third of those surveyed believe the quality of work performed by IT outsourcing consultants is lower than work by in-house employees, and 64 percent feel that their outsourcing partners invent work to artificially inflate costs. It is difficult to build a working relationship with a third-party company if you question its quality and integrity.

Philip Lieberman, President and CEO of Lieberman Software, says the survey results illustrate that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the IT outsourcing fence. "The fact that trust in the quality of work is being eroded is a worrying trend but, for me, the thought that work is being manufactured to inflate fees is even more of a concern."

Some IT projects . Organizations--especially small and medium businesses (SMBs)--simply don't have the budget to hire IT staff capable of managing any and all IT projects. Some projects require specific skills, and outsourcing is a solution that allows an organization to hire the best talent available only for as long as it's actually needed.