1. At a virtual machine manager in a computerized environment, the virtual machine manager being configured to manage one or more virtual machines at one or more virtual machine hosts, a method of automatically managing the creation and operation of the one or more virtual machines through delegated authority, comprising the acts of: receiving electronic control instructions from a virtual machine authority, the control instructions comprising one or more policy settings; passing the one or more policy settings to a configuration store; receiving a user request to create a virtual machine in accordance with one or more parameters; determining from the one or more policy settings that the user request can be granted; and sending electronic management instructions to a virtual machine host, wherein the management instructions identify that the requested virtual machine can be created in accordance with the one or more parameters.