IBM has followed Oracle and Cisco in announcing the launch of a pre-integrated stack of server, networking and storage equipment.

The company said the new system range, called PureSystems, is the result of $2 billion-worth of acquisitions and R&D starting in 2008.

IBM claimed that the new systems have been designed for increased density, and can handle "twice as many applications," compared to IBM’s BladeCenter, "doubling the computing power per square foot of data centre space".

To manage the integrated stack, IBM has developed a new systems management platform called "Patterns of Expertise". IBM said the software preloaded with automated sequences for common tasks, and will allow customers to develop their own sequences.

More than 100 IBM business partners will be offering applications which are ready to be deployed on the new IBM system, and IBM said that an online catalogue of ‘patterns’ will "radically simplif[y] how applications are purchased, deployed and managed".

"PureSystems is designed to help clients to free up time and money to focus on innovation that many businesses cannot address due to ever rising costs and staffing needs in the traditional data centre," said Steve Mills, IBM’s  executive of software and systems.

In recent years, the enterprise IT industry has returned to the previously unpopular model of selling hardware and software in pre-integrated stacks. In 2009, Cisco announced its Universal Computing System, a stack of server, storage and networking equipment. Since its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, meanwhile, Oracle has launched a range of ‘engineered systems’, in which Oracle software is pre-loaded on to Sun hardware.

IBM defined the mainframe era with its pre-integrated stacks of proprietary hardware, and PureSystems is arguably a return to the company’s roots.