1. A computer-implemented method to handle a request to define a scope for managing resources in a cloud-hosted environment, the method comprising: receiving a request to define a new scope, wherein the scope associates one or more cloud-based entities in a logical representation defined by a cloud tenant associated with the cloud-based entities; identifying a parent scope to be associated with the newly defined scope, wherein the parent scope can be empty to indicate a root-level scope; receiving one or more scope properties to be associated with the newly defined scope; creating the newly defined scope based on the received scope properties and associating the newly defined scope with the identified parent scope; and sending a scope definition response that indicates success or failure of the scope definition request, wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.