Configuring a service based on manipulations of graphical representations of abstractions of resources

A method comprising:

• obtaining a data center topology of a particular data center that includes information identifying a mapping between an abstraction of a type of a resource of the particular data center and a concrete type of resource of the particular data center;
• filtering out one or more potential physical resources of the data center that correspond to the concrete type of resource obtained via the mapping of the abstraction of the type to the concrete type of resource to obtain candidate physical resources;
• displaying the candidate physical resources in a user-selectable pane of a user interface, the pane configured to allow the user to drag-and-drop an icon from the pane into a representation of the topology;
• in response to a manual selection to bind at least one of the candidate physical resources to the concrete type of resource, generating a topology instance document that includes a binding between the at least one candidate physical resource and the concrete type of resource;
• and
• based on the topology instance document, allocating the at least one bound candidate physical resource to a service such that the at least one bound candidate physical resource is available to the service when implemented within a threshold amount of time.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:

• obtain a data center topology of a particular data center that includes information identifying a mapping between an abstraction of a type of a resource of the particular data center and a concrete type of resource of the particular data center;
• filter out one or more potential physical resources of the data center that correspond to the concrete type of resource obtained via the mapping of the abstraction of the type to the concrete type of resource to obtain candidate physical resources;
• display the candidate physical resources in a pane of a user interface;
• in response to a manual selection to bind at least one of the candidate physical resources to the concrete type of resource, generate a topology instance document that includes a binding between the at least one candidate physical resource and the concrete type of resource;
• and
• based on the topology instance document, allocate the at least one bound candidate physical resource to a service such that the at least one bound candidate physical resource is available to the service when implemented within a threshold amount of time.