The current Internet is facing many challenges to accommodate the growing demands of cloud computing. Software-defined networking (SDN) is an emerging paradigm, proposed to be used in this context in order to investigate these issues. SDN virtualises network functions, reducing the amount of hardware and allowing to control data centres through software and programs. With SDN, it is possible to build the future Internet and solve the current issues. SDN assures the programmability of the network components and the development of new routing and forwarding approaches without changing the hardware components. However, the transition from traditional Internet protocol (IP) networks to full SDN networks is associated with many challenges in a short term as it requires from network operators a costly investment on new networking equipments. So, fulfilling full SDN architectures must be incrementally introduced in conventional IP networks. This study presents a performance study of a hybrid IP/SDN network, under NS-3, using Fat Tree, BCube and Three-tier data centre network (DCN) architectures, compared to conventional IP. Simulation results show that using a hybrid IP/SDN network enhances the performance of DCN architectures by providing an efficient communication and minimising the energy consumption.