In accordance with an embodiment, one or more software application products, such as Oracle Fusion Applications, can be installed and/or configured according to an integration and deployment design/blueprint that is built or optimized for use within a multi-tiered deployment topology at an organization's (i.e., customer's) data center. Based on the customer site topology, provisioning of the software applications can be optimized; and application life cycle operations performed. This enables each product to be aware of the topology, which in turn provides customers with an “out-of-the-box” solution. The topology can also be optimized for security, performance and simplicity. In accordance with an embodiment, the deployment topology can include thick client functionality.