Why shouldn't we outsource? We're all getting older; it's getting harder to find people to replace us. Skills such as PL/1, IMS and the like haven't been taught for years.

What holds us back are the decrepit systems that are -- our friends. They're our reason for coming into work, our reason for enjoying this IT life. "My" system -- the one I had a hand in building all those years ago.

So why aren't we doing the right thing? Why do we hang on to these relics of the past to the point where finding a sourcing partner to deal with them starts to look more attractive?

"The users will never pay to rewrite these," we say. But when was the last time anyone actually asked them? And, if users were asked, were they asked about a business decision, or were they told about obsolete programming languages, dead databases and hot new technologies?

When we ask about replacing our friends and try to be convincing by talking about our issues, we're setting ourselves up for a "no." But then, that's what we really wanted anyway.