1. A network element (NE) comprising: a receiver configured to couple to a cloud network; and a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) coupled to the receiver and configured to: receive a first partition configuration from an orchestration element; partition a plurality of processor cores into a plurality of processor core partitions according to the first partition configuration; initiate a plurality of virtual basic input/output systems (vBIOSs) generated by the orchestration element to form a plurality of computing subsystems within the NE, wherein each vBIOS manages a processor core partition, wherein at least one vBIOS is configured to run an application without booting a corresponding operating system (OS) to manage the application; and execute a distributed application across the plurality of computing subsystems, wherein the distributed application transmits hardware resource requests of applications executing in the plurality of computing subsystems to the orchestration element.