diff --git a/docker/ops-playground-image/Dockerfile b/docker/ops-playground-image/Dockerfile
index 83d7b20..d897a7e 100644
--- a/docker/ops-playground-image/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/ops-playground-image/Dockerfile
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 # Build Operations Playground Image
 ###############################################################################
 
-FROM flink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+FROM apache/flink:1.12.1-scala_2.11-java8
 
 WORKDIR /opt/flink/bin
 
diff --git a/docker/ops-playground-image/java/flink-playground-clickcountjob/pom.xml b/docker/ops-playground-image/java/flink-playground-clickcountjob/pom.xml
index f759ede..838f08a 100644
--- a/docker/ops-playground-image/java/flink-playground-clickcountjob/pom.xml
+++ b/docker/ops-playground-image/java/flink-playground-clickcountjob/pom.xml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 
 	<groupId>org.apache.flink</groupId>
 	<artifactId>flink-playground-clickcountjob</artifactId>
-	<version>1-FLINK-1.11_2.11</version>
+	<version>1-FLINK-1.12_2.11</version>
 
 	<name>flink-playground-clickcountjob</name>
 	<packaging>jar</packaging>
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
 
     <properties>
 		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-		<flink.version>1.11.0</flink.version>
+		<flink.version>1.12.1</flink.version>
 		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
 		<scala.binary.version>2.11</scala.binary.version>
 		<maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>
diff --git a/operations-playground/README.md b/operations-playground/README.md
index 605d62a..fca9a01 100644
--- a/operations-playground/README.md
+++ b/operations-playground/README.md
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@
 docker-compose build
 ```
 
+### Preparing the Checkpoint and Savepoint Directories
+
+Create the checkpoint and savepoint directories on the Docker host machine (these volumes are mounted by the jobmanager and taskmanager, as specified in docker-compose.yaml):
+
+```bash
+mkdir -p /tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory
+mkdir -p /tmp/flink-savepoints-directory
+```
+
 ### Starting the Playground
 
 Once you built the Docker image, run the following command to start the playground
@@ -52,4 +61,4 @@
 ## Further instructions
 
 The playground setup and more detailed instructions are presented in the
-["Getting Started" guide](https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.11/try-flink/flink-operations-playground.html) of Flink's documentation.
+["Getting Started" guide](https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.12/try-flink/flink-operations-playground.html) of Flink's documentation.
diff --git a/operations-playground/docker-compose.yaml b/operations-playground/docker-compose.yaml
index 0d795e7..d9b8695 100644
--- a/operations-playground/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/operations-playground/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 services:
   client:
     build: ../docker/ops-playground-image
-    image: apache/flink-ops-playground:1-FLINK-1.11-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink-ops-playground:1-FLINK-1.12-scala_2.11
     command: "flink run -d /opt/ClickCountJob.jar --bootstrap.servers kafka:9092 --checkpointing --event-time"
     depends_on:
       - jobmanager
@@ -30,29 +30,29 @@
     environment:
       - JOB_MANAGER_RPC_ADDRESS=jobmanager
   clickevent-generator:
-    image: apache/flink-ops-playground:1-FLINK-1.11-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink-ops-playground:1-FLINK-1.12-scala_2.11
     command: "java -classpath /opt/ClickCountJob.jar:/opt/flink/lib/* org.apache.flink.playgrounds.ops.clickcount.ClickEventGenerator --bootstrap.servers kafka:9092 --topic input"
     depends_on:
       - kafka
   jobmanager:
-    image: flink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink:1.12.1-scala_2.11-java8
     command: "jobmanager.sh start-foreground"
     ports:
       - 8081:8081
     volumes:
       - ./conf:/opt/flink/conf
-      - flink-checkpoints-directory:/tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory
+      - /tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory:/tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory
       - /tmp/flink-savepoints-directory:/tmp/flink-savepoints-directory
     environment:
       - JOB_MANAGER_RPC_ADDRESS=jobmanager
   taskmanager:
-    image: flink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink:1.12.1-scala_2.11-java8
     depends_on:
       - jobmanager
     command: "taskmanager.sh start-foreground"
     volumes:
       - ./conf:/opt/flink/conf
-      - flink-checkpoints-directory:/tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory
+      - /tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory:/tmp/flink-checkpoints-directory
       - /tmp/flink-savepoints-directory:/tmp/flink-savepoints-directory
     environment:
       - JOB_MANAGER_RPC_ADDRESS=jobmanager
@@ -69,5 +69,3 @@
       KAFKA_ZOOKEEPER_CONNECT: zookeeper:2181
     ports:
       - 9094:9094
-volumes:
-  flink-checkpoints-directory:
diff --git a/pyflink-walkthrough/Dockerfile b/pyflink-walkthrough/Dockerfile
index 9224a58..3612785 100644
--- a/pyflink-walkthrough/Dockerfile
+++ b/pyflink-walkthrough/Dockerfile
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@
 # Build PyFlink Playground Image
 ###############################################################################
 
-FROM flink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
-ARG FLINK_VERSION=1.11.1
+FROM apache/flink:1.12.1-scala_2.11-java8
+ARG FLINK_VERSION=1.12.1
 
 # Install pyflink
 RUN set -ex; \
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
   ln -s /usr/bin/pip3 /usr/bin/pip; \
   apt-get update; \
   python -m pip install --upgrade pip; \
-  pip install apache-flink==1.11.1; \
+  pip install apache-flink==1.12.1; \
   pip install kafka-python;
 
 
diff --git a/pyflink-walkthrough/README.md b/pyflink-walkthrough/README.md
index d721790..fa2f3e5 100644
--- a/pyflink-walkthrough/README.md
+++ b/pyflink-walkthrough/README.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 In this playground, you will learn how to build and run an end-to-end PyFlink pipeline for data analytics, covering the following steps:
 
 * Reading data from a Kafka source;
-* Creating data using a [UDF](https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.11/dev/python/table-api-users-guide/udfs/python_udfs.html);
+* Creating data using a [UDF](https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.12/dev/python/table-api-users-guide/udfs/python_udfs.html);
 * Performing a simple aggregation over the source data;
 * Writing the results to Elasticsearch and visualizing them in Kibana.
 
@@ -153,4 +153,4 @@
 ```
 
 Furthermore, you can also [create new Kibana dashboards](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/7.8/dashboard-create-new-dashboard.html) 
-to visualize other aspects of the data in Elasticsearch.
\ No newline at end of file
+to visualize other aspects of the data in Elasticsearch.
diff --git a/pyflink-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml b/pyflink-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
index 96e4c6f..ef07632 100644
--- a/pyflink-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/pyflink-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 services:
   jobmanager:
     build: .
-    image: pyflink/pyflink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+    image: pyflink/pyflink:1.12.1-scala_2.11
     volumes:
       - .:/opt/pyflink-walkthrough
     hostname: "jobmanager"
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
     environment:
       - JOB_MANAGER_RPC_ADDRESS=jobmanager
   taskmanager:
-    image: pyflink/pyflink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+    image: pyflink/pyflink:1.12.1-scala_2.11
     volumes:
     - .:/opt/pyflink-walkthrough
     expose:
diff --git a/table-walkthrough/Dockerfile b/table-walkthrough/Dockerfile
index 9210b4d..ee223d6 100644
--- a/table-walkthrough/Dockerfile
+++ b/table-walkthrough/Dockerfile
@@ -22,12 +22,12 @@
 COPY ./src /opt/src
 RUN cd /opt; mvn clean install -Dmaven.test.skip
 
-FROM flink:1.11.0-scala_2.11
+FROM apache/flink:1.12.1-scala_2.11-java8
 
 # Download connector libraries
-RUN wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-sql-connector-kafka_2.11/1.11.0/flink-sql-connector-kafka_2.11-1.11.0.jar; \
-    wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-connector-jdbc_2.11/1.11.0/flink-connector-jdbc_2.11-1.11.0.jar; \
-    wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-csv/1.11.0/flink-csv-1.11.0.jar; \
+RUN wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-sql-connector-kafka_2.11/1.12.1/flink-sql-connector-kafka_2.11-1.12.1.jar; \
+    wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-connector-jdbc_2.11/1.12.1/flink-connector-jdbc_2.11-1.12.1.jar; \
+    wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/flink/flink-csv/1.12.1/flink-csv-1.12.1.jar; \
     wget -P /opt/flink/lib/ https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/mysql/mysql-connector-java/8.0.19/mysql-connector-java-8.0.19.jar;
 
 COPY --from=builder /opt/target/spend-report-*.jar /opt/flink/usrlib/spend-report.jar
diff --git a/table-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml b/table-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
index a3e232a..65be5ea 100644
--- a/table-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/table-walkthrough/docker-compose.yml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 version: '2.1'
 services:
   jobmanager:
-    image: apache/flink-table-walkthrough:1-FLINK-1.11-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink-table-walkthrough:1-FLINK-1.12-scala_2.11
     build: .
     hostname: "jobmanager"
     expose:
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
       - kafka
       - mysql
   taskmanager:
-    image: apache/flink-table-walkthrough:1-FLINK-1.11-scala_2.11
+    image: apache/flink-table-walkthrough:1-FLINK-1.12-scala_2.11
     build: .
     expose:
       - "6121"
diff --git a/table-walkthrough/pom.xml b/table-walkthrough/pom.xml
index 207fc51..529d5e9 100644
--- a/table-walkthrough/pom.xml
+++ b/table-walkthrough/pom.xml
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 
 	<properties>
 		<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-		<flink.version>1.11.0</flink.version>
+		<flink.version>1.12.1</flink.version>
 		<java.version>1.8</java.version>
 		<scala.binary.version>2.11</scala.binary.version>
 		<maven.compiler.source>${java.version}</maven.compiler.source>