diff --git a/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/AppConfigurationAccessor.cs b/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/AppConfigurationAccessor.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a03cfea45
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/AppConfigurationAccessor.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Configuration;
+using System.Linq;
+using System.Text;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
+
+namespace Orchard.Environment.Configuration {
+    public class AppConfigurationAccessor : IAppConfigurationAccessor {
+        public string GetConfiguration(string name) {
+            var appSettingsValue = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[name];
+            if (appSettingsValue != null) {
+                return appSettingsValue;
+            }
+
+            var connectionStringSettings = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings[name];
+            if (connectionStringSettings != null) {
+                return connectionStringSettings.ConnectionString;
+            }
+
+            return String.Empty;
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/IAppConfigurationAccessor.cs b/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/IAppConfigurationAccessor.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d32ef8e20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Orchard/Environment/Configuration/IAppConfigurationAccessor.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Linq;
+using System.Text;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
+
+namespace Orchard.Environment.Configuration {
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Exposes application configuration (can be e.g. AppSettings from Web.config or CloudConfiguration on Azure).
+    /// </summary>
+    public interface IAppConfigurationAccessor : IDependency {
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Gets an application configuration value with the given name (can be e.g. AppSettings from Web.config or CloudConfiguration on Azure).
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="name">The name of the application configuration entry.</param>
+        /// <returns>The string value of the application configuration entry.</returns>
+        string GetConfiguration(string name);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj b/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
index 6b7245378..e61e30e5b 100644
--- a/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
+++ b/src/Orchard/Orchard.Framework.csproj
@@ -225,6 +225,8 @@
     <Compile Include="Environment\AutofacUtil\ConfigurationSettingsReaderConstants.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Environment\CollectionOrderModule.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Caching\DefaultAsyncTokenProvider.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="Environment\Configuration\AppConfigurationAccessor.cs" />
+    <Compile Include="Environment\Configuration\IAppConfigurationAccessor.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Environment\Configuration\ShellSettingsSerializer.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Environment\Extensions\DefaultCriticalErrorProvider.cs" />
     <Compile Include="Environment\Extensions\ExtensionMonitoringCoordinator.cs" />