As container based deployment involves a single image per microservice, it is a bad idea to bundle the configuration along with the image.

This approach is not at all SCALABLE because we might have multiple environments and also we might have to TAKE care of geographically distributed DEPLOYMENTS where we might have different configurations as well.

Also, when there are application and cron application as part of the same codebase, it might need to take additional care on production as it might have repercussions how the crons are architected.

To solve this, we can put all our configuration in a centralized config service which can be queried by the application for all its configurations at the runtime. Spring CLOUD is one of the example services which provides this facility.

It also helps to secure the information, as the configuration might have passwords or access to reports or database access controls. Only trusted parties should be allowed to access these details for security reasons.