An example method for instantiating a network using a network function virtualization infrastructure (NVFI) pod in a network environment is provided and includes receiving a request to instantiate a logical network topology in the NFVI pod that includes a pre-selected set of interconnected pre-configured hardware resources, the abstract network topology including a virtual network function (VNF) forwarding graph (FG), distilling the VNF FG into various interconnected VNFs, deploying various VNFs of the VNF FG to a plurality of virtual machines, and instantiating the network topology on appropriate hardware resources in the NFVI pod. In specific embodiments, the pre-selected set of interconnected pre-configured hardware resources includes a plurality of compute servers, a plurality of controller servers, a set of network resources, and a plurality of storage resources. It may also include a high performance virtual switch operating in a user space of respective memory elements of a plurality of servers.