1. A system, comprising: a processor; a memory; and a state manager stored in the memory and configured to operate as a key-value store of state providers of a distributed network, wherein the distributed network comprises a plurality of nodes, and wherein the state manager includes instructions, which are executable by the processor to provide transactional distributed lifecycle management including maintaining key-value tuples of state provider names, state provider data, and state provider metadata in the memory, wherein the state provider metadata is used to create the state providers, writing transactions performed by the state manager in a write ahead log, which is stored in the memory, receiving a request to create one of the state providers, creating the one of the state providers, based on a corresponding one of the key-value tuples, to be a member of a group of different application-level state providers that include different structured application program data structures, which are atomic with respect to one another, replicating the metadata of the one of the state providers to provide (i) a primary replica at a primary node, and (ii) a secondary replica at a secondary node, persisting the primary replica and the secondary replica past an operational point of failure at one of the plurality of nodes of the distributed network, and based on a state of the primary replica and a state of the secondary replica subsequent to the failure at the one of the plurality of nodes, (i) switching roles between the primary replica and the secondary replica, and (ii) prior to switching the roles, recording this role switching transaction in the write ahead log.