Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is chartering new terrain in the database sector with an all-new Linux OS compatible database software package, indicating massive strategic changes from proprietary Windows operating system to open source software systems.

On Monday, the Redmond Company confirmed that it would be launching its own Linux compatible database software, marking the multi-platform approach by new CEO at MSFT, Satya Nadella, ever since he took over the helm in 2014.

All over the world as companies, big and small, take to data crunching and use of millions and trillions of bytes of data, the growth of database industry has also expanded. In terms of sales the industry has seen an increase of $30 billion, much against the slowing trend in IT spending, according to analyst Merv Adrian, at Gartner the research firm.

Data-Centric Growth, Switching to Linux

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) swift moves to open its paid-for database software packages for the incrementally priced open source packages, tells the story of a struggling behemoths attempts to survive. Technology today is more about data analysis, processing and storage. Hence there is a growing need for enterprise level database providers to work with multiple platforms.

At present a number of technology providers are switching to open source platform. Docusign, the industry leader in digital signature, uses SQL Server, a Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) product which is now heading towards Linux computability. Another great example of providers adopting multiple software platforms is that of Renault Sport. The company crunches millions of data related to racing teams on Formula One race tracks. The package too is headed to Linux too.

The market is currently dominated by Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) database software package. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) SQL Server ranks closely behind, with 21.5% market share against Oracle’s nearly 40% of the market share. SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE:SAP­), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) are some of the other close competitors who too are looking for open source based packages. Experts believe that Microsoft’s move is “significantly competitive threat” which it did not have before, and Oracle will take notice of it.