A managed object of a virtualized computing environment, which contains the runtime state of a parent virtual machine (VM) and can be placed in any host of the virtualized computing environment, is used for instantly cloning child VMs off that managed object. The managed object is not an executable object (i.e., the state of the managed object is static) and thus it does not require most of the overhead memory associated with a VM. As a result, this managed object can support instant cloning of VMs with a reduction in memory, storage, and CPU overhead relative to when a parent template VM is used.