diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..337d8ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+########
+# Python dependencies builder
+#
+# Full official Debian-based Python image
+FROM python:3.8 AS builder
+
+# Always set a working directory
+WORKDIR /app
+# Sets utf-8 encoding for Python et al
+ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
+ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+
+
+# Ensures that the python and pip executables used
+# in the image will be those from our virtualenv.
+ENV PATH="/venv/bin:$PATH"
+
+# Install OS package dependencies.
+# Do all of this in one RUN to limit final image size.
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        build-essential && \
+        rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# Setup the virtualenv
+RUN python -m venv /venv
+
+# Install Python deps
+COPY requirements.txt ./
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+
+# Actual container
+#
+#
+FROM python:3.8-slim AS app
+
+# Extra python env
+ENV PATH="/venv/bin:$PATH"
+
+WORKDIR /app
+EXPOSE 8080
+
+# copy in Python environment
+COPY --from=builder /venv /venv
+
+RUN apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        libxml2 && \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# copy in the rest of the app
+COPY ./ ./
+ENTRYPOINT ["gunicorn", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8080","worldcities:app"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Procfile b/Procfile
deleted file mode 100644
index b074077..0000000
--- a/Procfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-web: python worldcities.py
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4e812fa..befafad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+**Note**: A former version of the tutorial deployed the app to Cloud Foundry Public on IBM Cloud. You can find the material in the [branch **cloudfoundry**](https://github.com/IBM-Cloud/cloud-sql-database/tree/cloudfoundry).
+
 # IBM Cloud SQL Database
 This tutorial shows how to provision a SQL (relational) database service, create a table and load a larger data set, city information into the database. Thereafter, we deploy a web app "worldcities" to make use of that data and show how to access the cloud database. The app is written in Python using the Flask framework.
 
@@ -5,6 +7,11 @@ This tutorial is part of [IBM Cloud tutorials](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/tutori
 
 # Up and running in few steps
 To get this SQL database-backed app up and running only few steps and about 10 minutes are needed. Please follow the steps outlined in the IBM Cloud tutorial.
- 
+
+# Local testing
+
+- Install the requirements to run Python directly or build and run the container image.
+- Set the environment variable **DASHDB_SSLDSN** to the value obtained from the Db2 Warehouse credentials for the key **ssldsn**.
+
 # Feedback
-If you have feedback on the code or the related tutorial, please either open an issue on this repository or leave documentation feedback at the above mentioned tutorial.
+If you have feedback on the code or the related tutorial, please open an issue on this repository.
diff --git a/manifest.yml b/manifest.yml
deleted file mode 100644
index f0de4f4..0000000
--- a/manifest.yml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-applications:
-- name: worldcities
-  memory: 256M
-  command: python worldcities.py
-  random-route: true
-  services:
-  - sqldatabase
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 7716b31..55276f1 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
-Flask
-ibm_db
+Flask==2.0.3
+gunicorn
+ibm_db == 3.1.2
+python-dotenv==0.15.0
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/runtime.txt b/runtime.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 5a26ef3..0000000
--- a/runtime.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-python-3.7.x
diff --git a/templates/index.html b/templates/index.html
index ae8d279..1757a33 100644
--- a/templates/index.html
+++ b/templates/index.html
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 {% block title %}World Cities{% endblock %}
 {% block content %}
 <h1>Hello Cities of the World!</h1>
-<p>This app is named "{{ app["application_name"] }}". You can search for information on cities with a population over 1000. Use the local name.
+<p>You can search for information on cities with a population over 1000. Use the local name.
 As an alternative, you can directly access city information using "/city/name", e.g., <a href="/city/Friedrichshafen">/city/Friedrichshafen</a>.</p>
 <br>
 <p>
diff --git a/worldcities.py b/worldcities.py
index 2ff0599..18dc853 100644
--- a/worldcities.py
+++ b/worldcities.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# (C) 2017 IBM
+# (C) 2017-2022 IBM
 # Author: Henrik Loeser
 #
 # Very short sample app used with Db2 Warehouse on Cloud to demonstrate
@@ -12,22 +12,27 @@
 import json
 import ibm_db
 
+# for loading .env
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
+
+# load environment
+load_dotenv()
+
 app = Flask(__name__)
 
 # get service information if on IBM Cloud Platform
-if 'VCAP_SERVICES' in os.environ:
-    db2info = json.loads(os.environ['VCAP_SERVICES'])['dashDB'][0]
-    db2cred = db2info["credentials"]
-    appenv = json.loads(os.environ['VCAP_APPLICATION'])
+if 'DASHDB_SSLDSN' in os.environ:
+    db2cred = os.getenv('DASHDB_SSLDSN')
 else:
-    raise ValueError('Expected cloud environment')
+    # log error, but continue - it might be before service binding
+    app.logger.error('No Db2 credentials configured.')
 
 # handle database request and query city information
 def city(name=None):
     # connect to DB2
     rows=[]
     try:
-      db2conn = ibm_db.connect(db2cred['ssldsn'], "","")
+      db2conn = ibm_db.connect(db2cred, "","")
       if db2conn:
           # we have a Db2 connection, query the database
           sql="select * from cities where name=? order by population desc"
@@ -55,7 +60,7 @@ def city(name=None):
 # main page to dump some environment information
 @app.route('/')
 def index():
-   return render_template('index.html', app=appenv)
+   return render_template('index.html')
 
 # for testing purposes - use name in URI
 @app.route('/hello/<name>')