Abstract: Systems and methods for deploying IT computer systems are disclosed. According to example embodiments, the system may include a controller that provisions and manages inter-related services within the system. As an example, clean up rules can be created and maintained to manage how modifications can be unwound in the event of a deletion of a service that has inter-dependencies with other services. According to additional example embodiments, the system may include a controller that provisions storage to compute resources and/or provisions and connects resources to cloud instances. Innovative techniques for backing up system components are also described.

Abstract: A system can be configured to automatically deploy clusters of clusterable services. For example, controller can deploy a plurality of copies of an application, and these applications can interdepend on each other. The controller can also configure a scheduler to manage (which may include load balancing) these applications. A service template used by the controller can include clustering rules, and these clustering rules can tell the controller how to connect those services. The clustering rules can be a set of logic instructions and/or templates that provide for the deployment of a service to a plurality of resources. Coupling instructions in the clustering rules define the coordination and interaction of separately booked physical and/or virtual resources and set up dependencies. The clustering rules define the use of information to scale up or scale down resources being used by a service.