For the purposes of this description, cloud services may be divided broadly into “l(fā)ow level” services and “high level” services. Low level cloud services (sometimes called “raw” or “commodity” services) typically provide little more than virtual versions of a newly purchased physical computer system: virtual disk storage space, virtual processing power, an operating system, and perhaps a database such as an RDBMS. In contrast, high or higher level cloud services typically focus on one or more well-defined end user applications, such as business oriented applications, Some high level cloud services provide an ability to customize and/or extend the functionality of one or more of the end user applications they provide; however, high level cloud services typically do not provide direct access to low level computing functions.