1. A computer-implemented method for deploying a web application platform in a cloud computing environment, the method comprising: receiving, by a deployment system installed in the cloud computing environment, a deployment manifest, wherein the deployment manifest includes data representing a plurality of components of the web application platform , wherein, in the deployment manifest, each component of the web application platform is associated with a respective resource pool specification, each resource pool specification including at least three distinct items: a respective first identifier of a respective virtual machine template for the respective component, a respective second identifier of a respective network for the respective component, and a respective provision of computing resources for the respective component; generating, by the deployment system, an infrastructure according to the deployment manifest, the infrastructure comprising a plurality resource pools, wherein each resource pool comprises a respective stem cell virtual machine created from the template identified by the first identifier, the respective stem cell virtual machine being associated with a network identified by the second identifier, wherein generating the infrastructure includes provisioning the respective computing resources to each resource pool, and wherein each stem cell virtual machine includes a respective agent for retrieving a respective job configuration for performing a respective role by a corresponding component of the web application platform; configuring each stem cell virtual machine according to the deployment manifest and job configuration, including launching each agent to retrieve a respective job configuration and transforming, by each agent each respective stem cell virtual machine into a respective distributed node of the cloud computing platform, wherein the transforming includes installing the respective component of the plurality of components of the web application platform on each respective stem cell virtual machine according to each respective job configuration, each job configuration specifies a respective update path and a respective restart path; and performing, on each distributed node and by each respective component, a respective job corresponding to a respective role.