Following the footsteps of rival HP, IBM unveiled the PureSystem line of so-called ‘expert integrated systems’ last month.  These are hardware appliances on which users can install software-based ‘patterns of expertise’ to automate certain aspects, say a task that an understaffed IT department would not be able to handle otherwise.

These machine-translated best practices are meant to be implemented using the Virtual Pattern Kit for Developers Big Blue introduced this week.  The toolset can be leveraged for the creation of new patterns, other than the ones IBM and 125 of its partners are currently developing.

Once an application has been created using the components in the Kit it can be deployed and tested on another new offering – the PureSystems Cloud Trial.  The latter is essentially an overly-simplified PaaS purpose-build for testing enterprise apps developed for IBM’s $2 billion hardware.

The second announcement from IBM this week is that they’re launching the Mobile Foundation, a portfolio of software and services targeting the mobile enterprise. The suite is based on technology the IT giant acquired as a part of the Worklight buy earlier this year, and features several notable items.

One solution is IBM WebSphere Cast Iron, a piece of software that connects mobile devices to back-end systems – the concept is pretty similar to that of HP’s Mobility Gateway.  There’s also a set of developer tools for iOS, Android and BBOS, new Endpoint Manager capabilities, and a whole roster of services spanning mobile strategy planning to implementation.

“It’s no secret that throughout the last decade, the most successful organizations have been quick to leverage new technology for business advantage,” said Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM Application and Integration Middleware. “Over this time, we have evolved our market-leading portfolio to meet our client’s needs to extend their reach through new channels like mobile and cloud computing.”

Cloud and mobile have been growing hand in hand lately for IBM, and not only when it comes to the timing of the updates.