Fast provisioning virtualization network service for cloud computing

A cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service hardware platform, comprising:

• a physical layer component further comprising
• one or more processing elements;
• a memory;
• an I/O subsystems;
• and
• a high speed network device, the physical layer providing computational capacity for the hardware platform;
• a virtualization layer component operatively coupled to the physical layer component, and further comprising:
• a system virtualization element;
• a storage virtualization element;
• and
• a network virtualization element;
• and
• a service container level operatively connected to the virtualization layer, the service container level comprising a plurality of virtual appliances containing applications and services, the service container level further comprising a communication fabric coupled to at least some of the virtual appliances, the communication fabric enabling access to the services provided in the service container level.