Components are dynamically associated in a multi-tier application to different layers of a corresponding multi-tier application infrastructure. This includes defining, in a memory of a host computing system, a pattern that has an inventory of components of a multi-tier application. Each of the components are associated with a corresponding tier label for an n-tier architecture and the pattern is loaded into a pattern engine. The pattern engine deploys each component of the pattern to a layer of the n-tier architecture corresponding to a tier label associated with the component.