Maven looks locally first, then falls back to the internet. You can insert your own package repository in between so you control the point of failure. Configuring Artifactory to work as a transparent proxy to take care of all of this for you is a walk in the park, and is only one of its possible use cases.
Maven lets you keep different library versions around for different applications. This is actually a fundamental thing I've noticed everywhere I've personally seen it used: specify the versions. However you use Maven is evil. Your usage pattern needs to be improved.
Maven lets you keep different library versions around for different applications. This is actually a fundamental thing I've noticed everywhere I've personally seen it used: specify the versions. However you use Maven is evil. Your usage pattern needs to be improved.