System and method for forming a cloud appliance. The system includes a management server, an artifact repository, a continuous integration server, and build managers. The management server includes source code and a project script for forming the cloud appliance. The artifact repository stores artifacts required to build the cloud appliance and artifacts that comprise the built cloud appliance. The continuous integration server manages a build process, unit test process, and deployment process based on the project script. The build managers build the source code for customizing the virtual machine and store the built source code as the second artifacts in the artifact repository. The continuous integration server instantiates the virtual machine from template and customizes the virtual machine to form a customized virtual machine using the artifacts specified in the project script, a customization process for each of the artifacts based on a type of the artifact.