A system for provisioning industrial project conversion services, comprising: a memory that stores executable components; and a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising: an image registry configured to store, on a cloud platform, virtual machine images that are configured with respective project conversion services; and a provisioning component configured to instantiate a virtual machine image, selected from the multiple virtual machine images, on which a project conversion service is installed to yield a virtual machine that executes the project conversion service on the cloud platform, wherein the project conversion service is configured to perform a conversion of an industrial control project from a first version to a second version; wherein the industrial control project is an industrial control code file, wherein the converting comprises at least replacing a portion of industrial control code defined in the industrial control code file with an automation object, and wherein the automation object represents an industrial asset and has associated therewith at least one of an input, an output, an analytic routine, an alarm, a security feature, or a graphical representation of the industrial asset. a memory that stores executable components; and a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the executable components, the executable components comprising: an image registry configured to store, on a cloud platform, virtual machine images that are configured with respective project conversion services; and a provisioning component configured to instantiate a virtual machine image, selected from the multiple virtual machine images, on which a project conversion service is installed to yield a virtual machine that executes the project conversion service on the cloud platform, wherein the project conversion service is configured to perform a conversion of an industrial control project from a first version to a second version; wherein the industrial control project is an industrial control code file, wherein the converting comprises at least replacing a portion of industrial control code defined in the industrial control code file with an automation object, and wherein the automation object represents an industrial asset and has associated therewith at least one of an input, an output, an analytic routine, an alarm, a security feature, or a graphical representation of the industrial asset. an image registry configured to store, on a cloud platform, virtual machine images that are configured with respective project conversion services; and a provisioning component configured to instantiate a virtual machine image, selected from the multiple virtual machine images, on which a project conversion service is installed to yield a virtual machine that executes the project conversion service on the cloud platform, wherein the project conversion service is configured to perform a conversion of an industrial control project from a first version to a second version; wherein the industrial control project is an industrial control code file, wherein the converting comprises at least replacing a portion of industrial control code defined in the industrial control code file with an automation object, and wherein the automation object represents an industrial asset and has associated therewith at least one of an input, an output, an analytic routine, an alarm, a security feature, or a graphical representation of the industrial asset.