There is a greater level of adoption of hybrid technology in Africa and companies are demonstrating more interest in this technology and related services, with the need to optimise application traffic flow front-of-mind for decision makers.

This is according to executives from French telecommunications firm Orange.

Hybrid capability allows customers to direct different applications and traffic type through different connections. "This give an option to use the internet and lower costs connections for non-critical traffic while diverting business critical and real time services over the more secure and dedicated private MPLS service," says Mark McCallum, director and CTO of Orange Business Services Africa.

The advent of more access to terrestrial services and the increase in submarine cable capacity has resulted in an improvement of broadband and other internet services on the continent, McCallum adds.

Other advantages associated with hybrid services model adoption listed by Orange include: cost savings (by offloading non-business critical or non-real time traffic to lower cost connections via the internet and concentrating business critical applications into the private network) and smart management of access to cloud-based services, either private or public.

The company's service project with international testing, inspection and certification company Cotecna is seen as a recent example of strong hybrid adoption.

Cotecna specialises in solutions that help governments combat fraud, protect customs revenue, maintain internal security and facilitate lawful commercial exchanges at national borders. The company also provides the private sector with a wide range of testing, inspection and certification services, as well as assistance in trade finance services and electronic documentation.

The Geneva-based outfit was looking to reinforce its connection capability with remote sites in Africa and globally. The main requirement was for a hybrid mix of technologies with a custom approached site per site.

"The hybrid solution allows for customers to connect central, regional and remote offices into our global private MPLS VPN using various technologies ranging from internet, VSAT, leased line, broadband and 3G," McCallum explains.

Orange states that the level of investment was absorbed in less than 6 months, with connectivity changes on a few important sites contributed more than 25% of TCO reduction.

The advancement of application service architecture and increased use of cloud based service providers is driving hybrid adoption, the company adds.