A cloud management system can maintain a set of “virtual groups,” and assign different “virtual groups” to particular computing resources. The “virtual groups” can be based on the particular usage (type of virtual machine, application of the virtual machine, function of the virtual machine, and the like) of the members in the groups and/or can be based on the specifications of the computing resources (type and amount of computing resources). When instantiating virtual machines in a cloud, the cloud management system can utilize the “virtual groups” to identify and allocate the computing resources.