Each architecture shift brings the opportunity for a new supplier to break into the service provider ecosystem, and even to dislodge an incumbent. The convergence of networks and IT, both in technical and organizational terms, has introduced IBM, Oracle and others to the heart of carrier activities. Small cell HetNets may increase the punching weight of currently minor RAN providers like Samsung and NEC (the European Commission clearly thinks so, based on its reasons for green-lighting the Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent merger). Cloud-RAN could push Intel-driven platforms into the access network. And increasingly, what will hold all these developments together will be software defined networking (SDN), which is seen by enterprise infrastructure heavyweights as a way to increase their carrier business, and perhaps…