1. A computer system embodied on one or more tangible computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method for operating a scalable computing platform, the system comprising: a receiving component that receives at least: a request for a service and a service description comprised of a description of one or more resources required to deploy the service; a resource determining component that determines one or more resources required to deploy the service based, in part, on the service description; an instance description producing component that produces an instance description comprised of a plurality of target elements, a source element including a designation of a target element with which to connect, and a stateful switch channel for the requested service based on at least: the service description and the one or more resources required to deploy the service; a resource mapping component that maps the plurality of target element, the source element, and the stateful switch channel as produced in the instance description to one or more resources available on the scalable computing platform; and a deploying component that deploys the service with a processor in association with the one or more mapped resources of the scalable computing platform required to deploy the service.