Abstract: According to at least one embodiment, an auto-discovery process is initiated to gather configuration information for a first instance of an application deployed on a mainframe computing system. A mainframe management agent of the mainframe computing system generates, using the configuration information gathered during the auto-discovery process, an image of the first instance of the application at the application layer. The image indicates a set of application artifacts and variables defining a runtime environment for the first instance of the application. A cloning template, which defines a workflow for cloning the application instance at a second mainframe computing system and indicates a set of application artifacts and variables to define a runtime environment for the application instance, is accessed, and a second instance of the application is provisioned on the second mainframe computing system based on the cloning template and the image of the first instance of the application.