Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method for placing components of a plurality of instances of a cloud application on nodes in a cloud infrastructure, the method including: receiving scenario probabilities of a plurality of cloud application scenarios, wherein the plurality of cloud application scenarios define the modes of operation of the cloud application; receiving cloud infrastructure performance data; defining a performance metric of the cloud application based upon cloud infrastructure performance data; defining constraints on the placement of the application components; receiving a service level agreement performance requirement based upon a probability; optimizing the placement of the components of the plurality of instances of the cloud application on nodes in the cloud infrastructure based upon the scenario probabilities, cloud infrastructure performance data, the performance metric, and the constraints on the placement of the application components to meet the service level agreement performance requirement.