A Gartner statistic claims that nearly three-fourths of large enterprises expect to have hybrid deployments by 2015. Although it may come as a surprise to some, most large companies today are already operating a hybrid enterprise network model and have done so for years.

In fact, in today's market, one would be hard pressed to find a large enterprise that exists solely on MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) networks says Karl Campbell, regional vice president, UK and South Africa, Riverbed Technology.

Most companies have internal MPLS, have Internet connection, bring in mobility to some degree to the business and usually consume at least one service, usually sales force as a CRM, says Campbell.

The hybrid enterprise uses a mix of data centre with private and public cloud-hosted apps and data, as well as networks that are made up of high quality and expensive VPNs, point-to-point circuits. This is supplemented by internet connectivity and, as an IT environment, is becoming ever more relevant.

Campbell believes the fuss over the hybrid enterprise is unnecessary because in a lot of cases, companies are already practising hybrid enterprise-type activities. "I think it's the opposite... where I think the opportunity rests is actually understanding how best to embrace the different components of hybrid enterprise to drive value in your business versus this whole debate about hybrid enterprise."

He says that while the hybrid enterprise is not a new trend, there are elements of this model that are not yet being fully exploited by businesses and could deliver significantly more value than they do. These are, in effect, 'living in the IT department'.

"This is not really a technology discussion, this is a business discussion... it's 'should I be deploying services that I could deploy through the hybrid enterprise environment, that I couldn't do through my own IT department'," Campbell continues.

This is a strategic business decision that needs to be made, he says.

This principle applies to any geographic location and specifically within client-facing industries that are typically early adopters because they are driven by user experience and demand.

According to Campbell Africa, and even more so areas like Sub-Saharan Africa, is very demanding of these services because they have a legacy based on being mobile dependent in terms of their IT experience.

"They skipped so many years of IT innovation and went straight to mobile ... so their whole IT experience is mobile," he explains.

Campbell adds that South African companies heading North of the border are sometimes more innovative in these regions than they are in South Africa. "The consumer is actually demanding something different than to what the South African consumer is - who has lived with all the different legacy systems and therefore understands the traditional branch."

Strategic component

The biggest and most obvious opportunity that lies within the hybrid enterprise is around the data centre branch, adds Campbell.

He says this is because most branches today have traditional infrastructure, including servers, storage and applications, which in many cases is outdated. "It is typically a capex purchase and has a three-to-five year depreciation lifecycle. It becomes business prohibitive," says Campbell.

Because the limited life-cycle asset is no longer addressing consumer requirements, the hybrid enterprise cloud model adds value to the branch.

It facilitates a move of all the capability into the data centre, irrespective of whether this sits in an organisation or in the cloud.

As such the flexible 'branch of the future' and 'branch-from-a-box' comes into play and eliminates issues like data risk, software and support.

This level of flexibility and control is sought-after in the emerging economies of today.

To IT professionals like Campbell, there is a clear opportunity for Africa to make better use of assets to build business.