Microsoft has always sold PC software for other companies’ operating systems, like that used by Apple’s Macintosh computers. But since becoming chief executive of Microsoft two years ago, Satya Nadella has gone further by creating software to run on other mobile operating systems like Apple iOS, and decoupling Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing system from Windows.

Now, for the first time that strategy is extending into so-called back-office software, a lucrative but not as well-known part of Microsoft’s business.

“Data is the core asset now,” Mr. Nadella said.

The numbers bear that out. While Windows Server is still popular, Linux servers are gaining. According to the research firm Gartner, 3.6 million Linux servers were shipped in 2014, compared with 2.4 million in 2011. Windows servers fell to 6.2 million in that time, from 6.5 million.

In the old computing world, decoupling Windows and SQL would have been unthinkable to Microsoft executives. But with Linux servers trending up and Microsoft servers heading down, insisting that SQL has to run on Windows would mean turning away potential customers.

That is not to say that Microsoft is in a weak position in corporate software sales. Even running on only one of two operating systems, Gartner said, Microsoft has 21.4 percent of the market in data management software. That is ahead of IBM and SAP, and behind only Oracle, which Gartner estimates still has a 43 percent share.