Advantages of storing dependencies in repository management system vs. just VC

Question

I just started a new job as a developer in an organizational unit which is responsible for development and maintenance of several small Java applications. Just like most other Java apps out there, they use numerous dependency libraries.

In my previous job, we used Artifactory for dependency management and our Maven build infrastructure was picking up jars from there. In this new job, they don't use a repository management system like Artifactory and all the dependency jars (on average 20-30 per application project) are actually checked into our Git repo.

I would like to see some feedback on the advantages of using a repo management system vs. simply putting your binary dependencies in VC.

See also: Using Subversion as an artifact repository vs a specific artifact management tool

Answer 1

Artifactory (and other Enterprise package managers) gives centralized control of which packages are used within a corporate development environment. For instance, if I want to avoid using say 4.3 of a given package, I can exclude it from my internal repository.

Also, it allows the company to make internally reusable packages available to other teams without exposing it to the public.

These are the primary advantages of using an enterprise repository over just checking dependencies into source control.