A file is created in a standardized format that defines a type of a containerized application and includes information for deployment of the containerized application. A single parser of the standardized format is thus enabled to deploy different types of containerized applications. The standardized file format includes an application definition. The application definition includes a service, a port list, a container list, a volume mount list, an access mode list, a resource usage list, or any suitable combination thereof. A client device presents a user interface that allows a user to select a containerized application to execute. An application server parses an application template file for the selected containerized application and, based on the information in the application template file, causes one or more servers (e.g., one or more Kubernetes cluster nodes) to execute the containerized application.