[saber6]

Nitpick: I really don't suggest a divergence in the DB/stack-of-choice between Dev/QA/Stage/Prod. I've chased so many issues that were in the planning process dismissed as "yeah that's an edge case and most likely won't happen".

The reasons I've seen for doing so are usually penny-wise, pound-foolish. Penny-wise in saving a few dollars (conceptually) on a spreadsheet for per-env/per-cycle, while neglecting the long-tail consequence of your labor factor just growing, potentially forever, without regard for total cost of ownership.

Sorry didn't mean to rant. Hope this helps.