diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index f6e75771..8e850d68 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-# Stage 1: Build the application
-FROM maven:3-eclipse-temurin-21 as builder
+FROM maven:3-eclipse-temurin-21 as jar_builder
 
 # Set the working directory in the Maven image
 WORKDIR /app
@@ -11,15 +10,29 @@ COPY pom.xml .
 # Build the application
 RUN mvn clean package -DskipTests
 
-FROM python:3.11
+FROM maven:3-eclipse-temurin-21
+
+# download system dependencies first to take advantage of docker caching
+RUN apt-get update; apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        build-essential \
+        default-mysql-client \
+        default-libmysqlclient-dev \
+        python3 \
+        python3-setuptools \
+        python3-dev \
+        python3-pip \
+        unzip \
+        perl \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
+    && pip3 install wheel
 
 # Install any needed packages specified in requirements.txt
 COPY requirements.txt ./
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
 
-# Install Perl. Some scripts are written in perl
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y perl
+RUN ln -s $(which python3) /usr/local/bin/python || true
 
+COPY --from=jar_builder /app/core-*.jar /
 COPY scripts/ scripts/
 RUN chmod -R a+x /scripts/
 
@@ -28,25 +41,5 @@ WORKDIR /scripts/
 
 ENV PORTAL_HOME=/
 
-COPY --from=builder /app/core-*.jar /
-# Set environment variables for Java version and installation paths
-ENV JAVA_VERSION 21
-ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/java/openjre-$JAVA_VERSION
-
-# Install necessary packages for adding repositories over HTTPS
-RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends apt-transport-https ca-certificates wget dirmngr gnupg software-properties-common && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Download and install OpenJRE 21
-# Note: The exact URL might change based on the latest available version, so replace it with the correct URL for JRE 21
-RUN mkdir -p "$JAVA_HOME" && \
-    wget -O jdk21.tar.gz "https://download.oracle.com/java/21/latest/jdk-21_linux-x64_bin.tar.gz" && \
-    tar xvf jdk21.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C "$JAVA_HOME" && \
-    rm jdk21.tar.gz
-
-# Add java to PATH
-ENV PATH $JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
-
 # This file is empty. It has to be overriden by bind mounting the actual application.properties
 RUN touch /application.properties