Index: src/main/java/info/magnolia/cms/beans/config/PropertiesInitializer.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/info/magnolia/cms/beans/config/PropertiesInitializer.java	(revision 41323)
+++ src/main/java/info/magnolia/cms/beans/config/PropertiesInitializer.java	(working copy)
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 import info.magnolia.module.ModuleManager;
 import info.magnolia.module.model.ModuleDefinition;
 import info.magnolia.module.model.PropertyDefinition;
+import info.magnolia.objectfactory.Components;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
@@ -54,7 +55,6 @@
 
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 
-import info.magnolia.objectfactory.Components;
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.ArrayUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
@@ -98,6 +98,13 @@
      */
     public static final String CONTEXT_PARAM_PLACEHOLDER_PREFIX = "contextParam/"; //$NON-NLS-1$
 
+    /**
+     * System property prefix, to obtain a property definition like ${systemProperty/property}, that can refer to any
+     * System property.
+     */
+    public static final String SYSTEM_PROPERTY_PLACEHOLDER_PREFIX = "systemProperty/"; //$NON-NLS-1$
+
+    
     public static PropertiesInitializer getInstance() {
         return Components.getSingleton(PropertiesInitializer.class);
     }
@@ -274,8 +281,9 @@
 
     /**
      * Returns the property files configuration string passed, replacing all the needed values: ${servername} will be
-     * reaplced with the name of the server, ${webapp} will be replaced with webapp name, and ${contextAttribute/*} and
-     * ${contextParam/*} will be replaced with the corresponding attributes or parameters taken from servlet context.
+     * reaplced with the name of the server, ${webapp} will be replaced with webapp name, ${systemProperty/*} will be
+     * replaced with the corresponding system property,  and ${contextAttribute/*} and ${contextParam/*} will be replaced
+     * with the corresponding attributes or parameters taken from servlet context.
      * This can be very useful for all those application servers that has multiple instances on the same server, like
      * WebSphere. Typical usage in this case:
      * <code>WEB-INF/config/${servername}/${contextAttribute/com.ibm.websphere.servlet.application.host}/magnolia.properties</code>
@@ -322,6 +330,20 @@
             }
         }
 
+        // Replacing system property (${systemProperty/something})
+        String[] systemPropertiesNames = getNamesBetweenPlaceholders(propertiesFilesString, SYSTEM_PROPERTY_PLACEHOLDER_PREFIX);
+        if (systemPropertiesNames != null) {
+            for (String sysPropName : systemPropertiesNames) {
+                if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(sysPropName)) {
+                    final String originalPlaceHolder = PLACEHOLDER_PREFIX + SYSTEM_PROPERTY_PLACEHOLDER_PREFIX + sysPropName + PLACEHOLDER_SUFFIX;
+                    final String paramValue = System.getProperty(sysPropName);
+                    if (paramValue != null) {
+                        propertiesFilesString = propertiesFilesString.replace(originalPlaceHolder, paramValue);
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        
         return propertiesFilesString;
     }