MODEL-BASED ARTIFACT MANAGEMENT

The current document is directed to cloud-based cloud-management systems and subsystem components of the management systems that store, retrieve, use, and manipulate artifacts. In the described implementations, artifacts are represented by artifact descriptors, referred to as "artifact specs," which are instantiated, at run time, as corresponding artifact models. The artifact models include full descriptions of the artifacts as well as references to locally stored instances of the artifacts that can be used to access the artifacts. In the case of automated-application-release-management subsystems, artifacts include executables, program code, files containing input and/or output data, and other stored data used in provisioning virtual machines, deploying application executables, testing application executables, and carrying out other subtasks of application development, testing, and release.