A method for generating and handling component applications (CA1,...,CAn) for physical components (C1,...,Cn) such as a programmable control (Programmable Logic Control), a Human Machine Interface and/or a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) unit of a control system, comprising the following process steps: providing component functions (CF1,...,CFn) in the form of object types from component models (CM1,...,CMn) and/or functional models (FM1,...,FMn) stored in a library, with specific references and sets of parameters for the component functions (CF1,...,CFn) to be used, along with the communication, logic and variables thereof; selecting component functions (CF1,...,CFn) that are specific to an application as a whole, characterized in, that customer-specific or license-based ranges of functions in the form of service level agreements (SLA1,...,SLAn) with assigned range of function parameters (PSLA1,...,PSLAn) are defined, that, once the defined service level agreements (SLA1,...,SLAn) have been verified, instances (ICF1,...,ICFn) are generated from the selected component functions (CF1,...,CFn), and a transfer of parameters (P1,...,Pn), including the range of function parameter (PSLA,...,PSLAn) that is relevant to the generation of the component applications, takes place that the instances (ICF1,...,ICFn) that are necessary for generating an application as a whole are distributed to resources (CU1,...,CUn) of a cloud-based environment as representatives (RC1,...,RCn) of the component functions (F1,...,Fn) by means of a resource management component, and are implemented for execution therein, that the generation of the component applications (CA1,...,CAn) in one of the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) in the cloud-based environment comprises the generation of parameter data, configuration data and/or application logic in the representative, that the data are exchanged by means of interaction between the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) and between the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) and the assigned physical component (C1,...,Cn), taking into consideration the instantiated sets of parameters and references of the representatives, and that the generated component applications (CA1,...,CAn) are loaded onto the physical components (C1,...,Cn). providing component functions (CF1,...,CFn) in the form of object types from component models (CM1,...,CMn) and/or functional models (FM1,...,FMn) stored in a library, with specific references and sets of parameters for the component functions (CF1,...,CFn) to be used, along with the communication, logic and variables thereof; selecting component functions (CF1,...,CFn) that are specific to an application as a whole, characterized in, that customer-specific or license-based ranges of functions in the form of service level agreements (SLA1,...,SLAn) with assigned range of function parameters (PSLA1,...,PSLAn) are defined, that, once the defined service level agreements (SLA1,...,SLAn) have been verified, instances (ICF1,...,ICFn) are generated from the selected component functions (CF1,...,CFn), and a transfer of parameters (P1,...,Pn), including the range of function parameter (PSLA,...,PSLAn) that is relevant to the generation of the component applications, takes place that the instances (ICF1,...,ICFn) that are necessary for generating an application as a whole are distributed to resources (CU1,...,CUn) of a cloud-based environment as representatives (RC1,...,RCn) of the component functions (F1,...,Fn) by means of a resource management component, and are implemented for execution therein, that the generation of the component applications (CA1,...,CAn) in one of the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) in the cloud-based environment comprises the generation of parameter data, configuration data and/or application logic in the representative, that the data are exchanged by means of interaction between the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) and between the representatives (RC1,...,RCn) and the assigned physical component (C1,...,Cn), taking into consideration the instantiated sets of parameters and references of the representatives, and that the generated component applications (CA1,...,CAn) are loaded onto the physical components (C1,...,Cn).