The clever design of Spring Cloud Config lies in its direct storage of configurations in Git. This approach naturally delegates issues such as modification records, access control, and version tracking to Git—effectively offloading these complexities from Config itself.
This design keeps the core architecture of Spring Cloud Config very simple. However, due to its reliance on the Git ecosystem, it also introduces certain inconveniences in practical use. This article will provide a detailed explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, drawing clear comparisons between them.
What Are the Drawbacks of Spring Cloud Config?
It does not provide a management interface; operations must be performed via Git.
Configuration changes take effect upon restart or require manual refresh. Supporting real-time updates necessitates additional setups such as Git webhooks and message queues.
There is no version management interface—all operations must be done through Git. It does not support gray release (canary deployment). Setting up authorization and review requires Git repository management, and it does not support separation of modification and publish permissions.
It lacks configuration monitoring capabilities. Configuration retrieval performance is relatively slow, as it requires cloning the Git repository and reading from the file system. While it supports Spring applications and provides annotations for configuration access, official support for robust multi-language clients is limited, and community support is relatively scarce.
Below are the Core Advantages of Apollo:
Configuration changes take effect in real time, enabling quick responses to sudden business demands.
It offers a powerful and user-friendly visual management interface, complete with features such as release history, rollback options, fine-grained permission allocation, and support for gray release.
The interface supports authorized review and separation of modification and publish permissions. It provides real-time configuration monitoring, making it easy to track which clients are using which configurations. It ensures high client availability and supports multiple environments and data centers.
Both official and community support is available for various languages. It is compatible with all Java and .NET applications and offers APIs for other languages. It also supports configuration access via Spring annotations.