This disclosure describes techniques for selectively placing and maintaining sensitive workloads in subsystems that achieve a minimum level of trustworthiness. An example method includes identifying at least one trustworthiness requirement associated with an application and transmitting, to a first subsystem, a request for at least one trustworthiness characteristic of the first subsystem and at least one second subsystem connected to the first subsystem. A response indicating the at least one trustworthiness characteristic is received from the first subsystem. The example method further includes determining that the at least one trustworthiness characteristic satisfies the at least one trustworthiness requirement; and causing the application to operate on a mesh comprising the first subsystem and the at least one second subsystem.