It seems to me that Microsoft's increasingly aggressive licensing costs for SQL Server 2012 and, worse, 2014, are hastening the impetus to look at alternatives even among relational db vendors.

It seems that the price was too good, the performance too predictable, and the operational support far too mature for too long. Now company executives are balking with sticker shock and looking for a place to hide while mourning their budgets.

As a data architect, I feel Microsoft is nudging the bayonet in the backs of companies who walk the plank towards Open Source relational and non-relational stores. Good, bad, or indifferent, they will turn this migration into a stampede.