1. A method comprising: obtaining from a user a service-level specification for information technology services; mapping said service-level specification into an information technology specific deployment plan; deploying information technology specific resources in accordance with said information technology specific deployment plan to provide said information technology services; and selecting a service template from a plurality of service template alternatives; wherein the selected service template has a plurality of unpopulated parameters that are a best match to parameters that are functions of inputs by the user in the service-level specification; and wherein said information technology specific deployment plan is derived from the selected service template.