Patent ID: 8335851

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for deploying one or more network-based services in a network, comprising: providing one or more user interfaces configured to facilitate specification of at least a portion of a logical structure of an environment by a user, the logical structure of the environment interrelating the one or more network-based services and one or more corresponding configurations, the one or more network-based services and the one or more configurations to be implemented by one or more network resources and one or more software components, the one or more network resources being selected from a pool of available network resources, the logical structure being organized in a hierarchy having a plurality of levels, each level of the hierarchy comprising one or more modular components, the logical structure including one or more dependencies among the modular components, the one or more services, and the one or more configurations, the one or more interfaces being configured to enable the user to take one or more actions with respect to the one or more modular components on multiple levels of the hierarchy, at least one of the one or more actions automatically propagating in the logical structure according to the one or more dependencies; removing the one or more network resources from the pool of available network resources; allocating the one or more network resources to the environment with reference to the logical structure of the environment; and deploying the one or more network resources and the one or more software components to the network with reference to the logical structure of the environment, thereby enabling provision of the one or more network-based services.