1. A system, comprising: a computer processor; and a memory containing a program which when executed by the processor, performs an operation to tag objects in a cloud computing environment, comprising: tagging a first object and a second object with a first tag, of a plurality of tags, wherein each of the plurality of tags specifies a respective criterion that objects tagged by the tag must comply with, wherein the first object comprises a compute node in the cloud computing environment, wherein the second object comprises a workload targeting the compute node, wherein the respective criterion comprises at least one of: (i) a physical resource allocation, (ii) a virtual resource configuration, (iii) a quality of service, (iv) a class of service, and (v) an operating condition in the cloud computing environment; comparing a respective attribute of the first and second objects to the respective criterion of the first tag; determining, based on a result of the comparison, that the first and second objects do not satisfy the respective criterion of the first tag; identifying a first set of action items and a second set of action items associated with the first tag, wherein the first and second sets of action items, when executed, alter the first object and the second object, respectively, to cause the first and second objects to comply with the respective criterion; performing the first and second sets of action items associated with the first tag to modify the first and second objects, respectively, to meet the respective criterion of the first tag; and deploying the workload to execute on the compute node in the cloud computing environment in compliance with the respective criterion of the first tag and without configuring the first and second sets of action items.