Apparatus and method of securely and efficiently interfacing with a cloud computing service

One or more non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause:

• assisting, by an intermediary device, in preparing configuration settings for a new deployment of one or more computing devices accessible by a cloud computing service;
• generating, by the intermediary device, a specification according the configuration settings, wherein the specification describes a configuration of one or more computing devices on the cloud computing service;
• translating, by the intermediary device, contents of the specification into a plurality of commands that are compatible with the cloud computing service, wherein the plurality of commands include setup commands and deployment commands;
• sending, by the intermediary device, one or more requests, which include the plurality of commands compatible with the cloud computing service, to the cloud computing service;
• wherein the one or more requests are programmed to cause the cloud computing service to configure, according to the specification, one or more computing devices on the cloud computing service.