Techniques are disclosed for providing a programmable data center, which includes a plurality of computers, a plurality of computing devices or resources, a programmable service fabric, and an operation controller. The computers act as computing hosts; the resources are associated with computing service providers; the programmable service fabric implements "virtual wires" represented by wavelengths to connect the hosts to the resources; and the operation controller manages operations of the data center. As customers desire a computing system for their applications, the customers provide their computing requirements identifying the number of hosts, the number of resources, etc., from which the operation controller creates a customized system from the utility data center. The operation controller, based on the provided requirements, selects the appropriate hosts, resources, and available wavelengths that implement the virtual wires, etc. The operation controller also programs the components of the programmable service fabric to convert the electrical signal to light waves, to create the light path for the light waves to travel to from the hosts to appropriate destinations, to reconvert the light waves to the electrical signals, to map these signals to the resources, etc. Embodiments of the invention including the virtual wire technologies provide both performance and security isolations between systems customized for individual customers.