An example method of managing an application in a virtualized computing system that includes a cluster of hosts managed by a virtualization management server, the hosts including a virtualization layer executing on hardware platforms is described. The method includes: receiving a specification for a namespace at the virtualization management server, the specification defining resource constraints and authorization constraints for the namespace; preparing an environment within the virtualized computing system for the namespace in response to the specification, the environment including: a resource pool implementing at least a portion of the resource constraints as reservations and limits of resources in the virtualized computing system; and a user access policy implementing the authorization constraints within the virtualized computing system for the namespace; and managing, by the virtualization management server as a single unit, workloads of the application, the workloads deployed on the virtualization layer within the resource pool consistent with the user access policy.