Yup, Microsoft's offerings from 2008 have had a major impact. Parallel Data Warehouse will probably take about 12-18 months to really penetrate the market, but I won't be a bit surprised to see similar continued growth.

There is an apples-to-oranges component to the numbers you posted, partly because of the differences in licensing - but the more interesting situation is MS hitting some major areas where Oracle and some of the other vendors you listed have previously dominated. One is the public sector.

One doesn't have to search too far to find negative remarks about any of the major players, But it's only semi-facetious to say that if SAP can find a way to piss off a good chunk of their client base, they will. After what they've done with Crystal Reports (granted, just one piece of their puzzle), there's a reason I don't write much about it anymore.

There are always going to be several major players in this market - but MS is now one of them. They've made up tremendous ground since 2005, even beating out the other vendors in some vendor selection processes. The next 3 years are critical to see if they carry the momentum, especially with Don Farmer leaving the company.