diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f4df61ce27240d915d5b615df2bbc41b5264bd35..f885890d9f564ffa2e290700e32242e7c4bd5005 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,30 +4,21 @@ This repository defines a set of Docker images and Docker compose files that
 are useful for TANGO control system development. 
 
 ## Building the Docker images
-It is recommended that you use the Docker compose files located in the root of
-this repository to create a set of tagged docker images. The images created
-by the Docker compose files comprise:
- 
+The Docker images created by this project comprise:
 
 Docker image           | Description
 -----------------------|------------
 ska/tango-dependencies | A base image containing TANGO's preferred version of ZeroMQ plus the preferred, patched version of OmniORB.
-ska/tangodb            | A MariaDB image with TANGO database schema defined. Data is stored separately in a volume 
-ska/tango              | Core C++ TANGO libraries and applications.
-ska/tango-java         | As per ska/tango, plus Java applications and bindings    
-ska/tango-python       | As per ska/tango, plus pytango Python bindings and itango for interactive TANGO sessions.
+ska/tango-db           | A MariaDB image with TANGO database schema defined. Data is stored separately in a volume 
+ska/tango-cpp          | Core C++ TANGO libraries and applications.
+ska/tango-java         | As per ska/tango-cpp, plus Java applications and bindings    
+ska/tango-python       | Extends ska/tango-cpp, adding pytango Python bindings and itango for interactive TANGO sessions.
 
 To build the images, from the root of this repository execute:
 
-    # build the TANGO dependency and core C++ images
-    docker-compose -f dependencies.yml -f tango.yml build
-    # build Docker images for Java and Python
-    docker-compose -f tango.yml -f tangotest.yml -f itango.yml build
+    cd docker
+    make build
     
-Alternatively, images can be created by following the standard Docker image
-build procedure using the Dockerfile definitions located in the `tango` directory.
-
-
 ## Launching a TANGO system
 The Docker compose files define a set of containers for a TANGO system. In 
 addition to the processes to be launched, the files define the connections and 
diff --git a/docker/make/.make-release-support b/docker/make/.make-release-support
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..06ecbcc99be1619f0ea293452748845ebb2d0160
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/make/.make-release-support
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+#
+#   Copyright 2015  Xebia Nederland B.V.
+#
+#   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+#   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#   You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#   limitations under the License.
+#
+function hasChanges() {
+	test -n "$(git status -s .)"
+}
+
+function getRelease() {
+	awk -F= '/^release=/{print $2}' .release
+}
+
+function getBaseTag() {
+		sed -n -e "s/^tag=\(.*\)$(getRelease)\$/\1/p" .release
+}
+
+function getTag() {
+	if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
+		awk -F= '/^tag/{print $2}' .release
+	else
+		echo "$(getBaseTag)$1"
+	fi
+}
+
+function setRelease() {
+	if [ -n "$1" ] ; then
+		sed -i.x -e "s/^tag=.*/tag=$(getTag $1)/" .release
+		sed -i.x -e "s/^release=.*/release=$1/g" .release
+		rm -f .release.x
+		runPreTagCommand "$1"
+	else
+		echo "ERROR: missing release version parameter " >&2
+		return 1
+	fi
+}
+
+function runPreTagCommand() {
+	if [ -n "$1" ] ; then
+		COMMAND=$(sed -n -e "s/@@RELEASE@@/$1/g" -e 's/^pre_tag_command=\(.*\)/\1/p' .release)
+		if [ -n "$COMMAND" ] ; then
+			if ! OUTPUT=$(bash -c "$COMMAND" 2>&1) ; then echo $OUTPUT >&2 && exit 1 ; fi
+		fi
+	else
+		echo "ERROR: missing release version parameter " >&2
+		return 1
+	fi
+}
+
+function tagExists() {
+	tag=${1:-$(getTag)}
+	test -n "$tag" && test -n "$(git tag | grep "^$tag\$")"
+}
+
+function differsFromRelease() {
+	tag=$(getTag)
+	! tagExists $tag || test -n "$(git diff --shortstat -r $tag .)"
+}
+
+function getVersion() {
+	result=$(getRelease)
+
+	if differsFromRelease; then
+		result="$result-$(git log -n 1 --format=%h .)"
+	fi
+
+	if hasChanges ; then
+		result="$result-dirty"
+	fi
+	echo $result
+}
+
+function nextPatchLevel() {
+	version=${1:-$(getRelease)}
+	major_and_minor=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f1,2)
+	patch=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f3)
+	version=$(printf "%s.%d" $major_and_minor $(($patch + 1)))
+	echo $version
+}
+
+function nextMinorLevel() {
+	version=${1:-$(getRelease)}
+	major=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f1);
+	minor=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f2);
+	version=$(printf "%d.%d.0" $major $(($minor + 1))) ;
+	echo $version
+}
+
+function nextMajorLevel() {
+	version=${1:-$(getRelease)}
+	major=$(echo $version | cut -d. -f1);
+	version=$(printf "%d.0.0" $(($major + 1)))
+	echo $version
+}
diff --git a/docker/make/Makefile b/docker/make/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..cde96661fd4694d495b490148002beefc3d6dbe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/make/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+SELF_DIR := $(dir $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST)))
+include $(SELF_DIR)/Makefile.mk
+
+REGISTRY_HOST=
+USERNAME=ska
+#NAME=
+
diff --git a/docker/make/Makefile.mk b/docker/make/Makefile.mk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..41a1d38f6daccc7846c639fd43d1daf35f6b1789
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/make/Makefile.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+#
+#   Copyright 2015  Xebia Nederland B.V.
+#
+#   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+#   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+#   You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#   limitations under the License.
+#
+REGISTRY_HOST=docker.io
+USERNAME=$(USER)
+NAME=$(shell basename $(CURDIR))
+
+RELEASE_SUPPORT := $(shell dirname $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))/.make-release-support
+#IMAGE=$(REGISTRY_HOST)/$(USERNAME)/$(NAME)
+IMAGE=$(USERNAME)/$(NAME)
+
+VERSION=$(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; getVersion)
+TAG=$(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); getTag)
+
+SHELL=/bin/bash
+
+DOCKER_BUILD_CONTEXT=.
+DOCKER_FILE_PATH=Dockerfile
+
+.PHONY: pre-build docker-build post-build build release patch-release minor-release major-release tag check-status check-release showver \
+	push pre-push do-push post-push
+
+build: pre-build docker-build post-build
+
+pre-build:
+
+
+post-build:
+
+
+pre-push:
+
+
+post-push:
+
+
+
+docker-build: .release
+	docker build $(DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS) -t $(IMAGE):$(VERSION) $(DOCKER_BUILD_CONTEXT) -f $(DOCKER_FILE_PATH)
+	@DOCKER_MAJOR=$(shell docker -v | sed -e 's/.*version //' -e 's/,.*//' | cut -d\. -f1) ; \
+	DOCKER_MINOR=$(shell docker -v | sed -e 's/.*version //' -e 's/,.*//' | cut -d\. -f2) ; \
+	if [ $$DOCKER_MAJOR -eq 1 ] && [ $$DOCKER_MINOR -lt 10 ] ; then \
+		echo docker tag -f $(IMAGE):$(VERSION) $(IMAGE):latest ;\
+		docker tag -f $(IMAGE):$(VERSION) $(IMAGE):latest ;\
+	else \
+		echo docker tag $(IMAGE):$(VERSION) $(IMAGE):latest ;\
+		docker tag $(IMAGE):$(VERSION) $(IMAGE):latest ; \
+	fi
+
+.release:
+	@echo "release=0.0.0" > .release
+	@echo "tag=$(NAME)-0.0.0" >> .release
+	@echo INFO: .release created
+	@cat .release
+
+
+release: check-status check-release build push
+
+
+push: pre-push do-push post-push
+
+do-push:
+	docker push $(IMAGE):$(VERSION)
+	docker push $(IMAGE):latest
+
+snapshot: build push
+
+showver: .release
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); getVersion
+
+tag-patch-release: VERSION := $(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); nextPatchLevel)
+tag-patch-release: .release tag
+
+tag-minor-release: VERSION := $(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); nextMinorLevel)
+tag-minor-release: .release tag
+
+tag-major-release: VERSION := $(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); nextMajorLevel)
+tag-major-release: .release tag
+
+patch-release: tag-patch-release release
+	@echo $(VERSION)
+
+minor-release: tag-minor-release release
+	@echo $(VERSION)
+
+major-release: tag-major-release release
+	@echo $(VERSION)
+
+
+tag: TAG=$(shell . $(RELEASE_SUPPORT); getTag $(VERSION))
+tag: check-status
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; ! tagExists $(TAG) || (echo "ERROR: tag $(TAG) for version $(VERSION) already tagged in git" >&2 && exit 1) ;
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; setRelease $(VERSION)
+	git add .
+	git commit -m "bumped to version $(VERSION)" ;
+	git tag $(TAG) ;
+	@ if [ -n "$(shell git remote -v)" ] ; then git push --tags ; else echo 'no remote to push tags to' ; fi
+
+check-status:
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; ! hasChanges || (echo "ERROR: there are still outstanding changes" >&2 && exit 1) ;
+
+check-release: .release
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; tagExists $(TAG) || (echo "ERROR: version not yet tagged in git. make [minor,major,patch]-release." >&2 && exit 1) ;
+	@. $(RELEASE_SUPPORT) ; ! differsFromRelease $(TAG) || (echo "ERROR: current directory differs from tagged $(TAG). make [minor,major,patch]-release." ; exit 1)
diff --git a/docker/tango/Makefile b/docker/tango/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9284cda52e7100f545081d322c384290137d7e7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+TRGTS = tango-dependencies tango-db tango-cpp tango-java tango-python
+
+.PHONY: all build tango-dependencies tango-db tango-cpp tango-java tango-python
+
+all: build
+
+build: $(TRGTS)
+
+$(TRGTS):
+	$(MAKE) --directory=$@ $(TARGET)
+	$(if $(TARGET), $(MAKE) $(TARGET))
+
+
+tango-dependencies:
+	$(MAKE) -C tango-dependencies
+
+tango-db:
+	$(MAKE) -C tango-db
+
+tango-cpp: tango-dependencies
+	$(MAKE) -C tango-cpp
+
+tango-java: tango-dependencies
+	$(MAKE) -C tango-java
+
+tango-python: tango-dependencies
+	$(MAKE) -C tango-python
+
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-cpp/.release b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/.release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..37505c411994f6c7cb6c29f09ae5e18c4db4389e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/.release
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+release=0.0.0
+tag=tango-cpp-0.0.0
diff --git a/tango/Dockerfile.base b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/Dockerfile
similarity index 74%
rename from tango/Dockerfile.base
rename to docker/tango/tango-cpp/Dockerfile
index b084934c48542c59893c2ce9f29bbb958c7d6d93..4a7eac40d8d369534118ab42794fad088a9b1c6f 100644
--- a/tango/Dockerfile.base
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,11 @@
-FROM ska/tango-dependencies:9.2.5a
+FROM ska/tango-dependencies:latest
+
+# supervisor is installed so that the TANGO Starter device can run, one 
+# Starter process per container  
+RUN runtimeDeps='supervisor' \
+    && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update \
+    && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends $runtimeDeps \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* 
 
 RUN TANGO_VERSION=9.2.5a \
     && TANGO_DOWNLOAD_URL=https://netcologne.dl.sourceforge.net/project/tango-cs/tango-$TANGO_VERSION.tar.gz \
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-cpp/Makefile b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f046a948604496191fe3dcfb695d21018b6435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-cpp/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include ../../make/Makefile
+
+pre-build:
+	@echo do some stuff before the docker build
+
+post-build:
+	@echo do some stuff after the docker build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-db/.release b/docker/tango/tango-db/.release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..862c6191739cd4e9cedb5e8546379aad277fcae1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-db/.release
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+release=0.0.0
+tag=tango-db-0.0.0
diff --git a/tango/Dockerfile.db b/docker/tango/tango-db/Dockerfile
similarity index 100%
rename from tango/Dockerfile.db
rename to docker/tango/tango-db/Dockerfile
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-db/Makefile b/docker/tango/tango-db/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f046a948604496191fe3dcfb695d21018b6435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-db/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include ../../make/Makefile
+
+pre-build:
+	@echo do some stuff before the docker build
+
+post-build:
+	@echo do some stuff after the docker build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tango/sql_mode.cnf b/docker/tango/tango-db/sql_mode.cnf
similarity index 100%
rename from tango/sql_mode.cnf
rename to docker/tango/tango-db/sql_mode.cnf
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/.release b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/.release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..eee4ee40a3fdf38208c7b9c95b3815ea9084508b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/.release
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+release=0.0.0
+tag=tango-dependencies-0.0.0
diff --git a/tango/Dockerfile.dependencies b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/Dockerfile
similarity index 100%
rename from tango/Dockerfile.dependencies
rename to docker/tango/tango-dependencies/Dockerfile
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/Makefile b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f046a948604496191fe3dcfb695d21018b6435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include ../../make/Makefile
+
+pre-build:
+	@echo do some stuff before the docker build
+
+post-build:
+	@echo do some stuff after the docker build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tango/wait-for-it.sh b/docker/tango/tango-dependencies/wait-for-it.sh
similarity index 100%
rename from tango/wait-for-it.sh
rename to docker/tango/tango-dependencies/wait-for-it.sh
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-java/.release b/docker/tango/tango-java/.release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4619ad74196be941cb45cf44927a1eb64b3ea491
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-java/.release
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+release=0.0.0
+tag=tango-java-0.0.0
diff --git a/tango/Dockerfile.java b/docker/tango/tango-java/Dockerfile
similarity index 97%
rename from tango/Dockerfile.java
rename to docker/tango/tango-java/Dockerfile
index ee9115e77a0d3facfb60171372597b86105db81c..f1a03a9053695d9c0a548bf51a889d459836775d 100644
--- a/tango/Dockerfile.java
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-java/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM ska/tango-dependencies:9.2.5a
+FROM ska/tango-dependencies:latest
 
 RUN runtimeDeps='default-jre' \
     && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update \
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-java/Makefile b/docker/tango/tango-java/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f046a948604496191fe3dcfb695d21018b6435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-java/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include ../../make/Makefile
+
+pre-build:
+	@echo do some stuff before the docker build
+
+post-build:
+	@echo do some stuff after the docker build
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-python/.release b/docker/tango/tango-python/.release
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e9de52a0e3e230c8766d10115ad83d5251efa5cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-python/.release
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+release=0.0.0
+tag=tango-python-0.0.0
diff --git a/tango/Dockerfile.python b/docker/tango/tango-python/Dockerfile
similarity index 97%
rename from tango/Dockerfile.python
rename to docker/tango/tango-python/Dockerfile
index 985e0dc764d43f28798dcfe5bbf1570baf866786..a1b8f1c1e3c6cf593173996ffd2acb935d7d8c41 100644
--- a/tango/Dockerfile.python
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-python/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-FROM ska/tango-base:9.2.5a
+FROM ska/tango-cpp:latest
 
 USER root
 
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ RUN runtimeDeps='ipython libboost-python1.62.0 python-concurrent.futures python-
     && apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends $runtimeDeps \
     && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* 
 
-RUN PYTANGO_TAG=v9.2.2 \
+RUN PYTANGO_TAG=v9.2.4 \
     && PYTANGO_URL=https://github.com/tango-cs/pytango.git \
     && buildDeps='build-essential ca-certificates git libboost-python-dev python-dev python-setuptools python3-dev python3-setuptools' \
     && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update \
diff --git a/docker/tango/tango-python/Makefile b/docker/tango/tango-python/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9f046a948604496191fe3dcfb695d21018b6435b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/tango/tango-python/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+include ../../make/Makefile
+
+pre-build:
+	@echo do some stuff before the docker build
+
+post-build:
+	@echo do some stuff after the docker build
\ No newline at end of file