diff --git a/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh b/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
index 4c58fcec9bb..c7a461ec7ad 100755
--- a/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
+++ b/scripts/aws/run_systemds_script.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ fi
 
 source systemds_cluster.config
 
-aws s3 cp $1 s3://system-ds-bucket/ --exclude "*" --include "*.dml"
+aws s3 cp $1 s3://${BUCKET} --exclude "*" --include "*.dml"
 
 if [ ! -z "$2" ]
 then
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ fi
 
 dml_filename=$(basename $1)
 
-STEP_INFO=$(aws emr add-steps --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --steps "Type=Spark,
+STEP_INFO=$(aws emr add-steps --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID  --region $REGION --steps "Type=Spark,
   Name='SystemDS Spark Program',
   ActionOnFailure=CONTINUE,
   Args=[
@@ -50,11 +50,11 @@ STEP_INFO=$(aws emr add-steps --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --steps "Type=Spark,
         --driver-memory,$SPARK_DRIVER_MEMORY,
         --num-executors,$SPARK_NUM_EXECUTORS,
         --conf,spark.driver.maxResultSize=0,
-        $SYSTEMDS_JAR_PATH, -f, s3://system-ds-bucket/$dml_filename, -exec, $SYSTEMDS_EXEC_MODE,$args,-stats, -explain]")
+        $SYSTEMDS_JAR_PATH, -f, s3://$BUCKET/$dml_filename, -exec, $SYSTEMDS_EXEC_MODE,$args,-stats, -explain]")
 
 STEP_ID=$(echo $STEP_INFO | jq .StepIds | tr -d '"' | tr -d ']' | tr -d '[' | tr -d '[:space:]' )
 echo "Waiting for the step to finish"
-aws emr wait step-complete --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --step-id $STEP_ID
+aws emr wait step-complete --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --step-id $STEP_ID --region $REGION
 
-aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --command "cat /mnt/var/log/hadoop/steps/$STEP_ID/stderr"
-aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --command "cat /mnt/var/log/hadoop/steps/$STEP_ID/stdout"
\ No newline at end of file
+aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --region $REGION --command "cat /mnt/var/log/hadoop/steps/$STEP_ID/stderr"
+aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --region $REGION --command "cat /mnt/var/log/hadoop/steps/$STEP_ID/stdout"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh b/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
index 8c93a636eae..7200af05be3 100755
--- a/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
+++ b/scripts/aws/spinup_systemds_cluster.sh
@@ -46,9 +46,14 @@ set_config "SPARK_EXECUTOR_MEMORY" $SPARK_EXECUTOR_MEMORY
 set_config "SPARK_DRIVER_MEMORY" "1G"
 set_config "BUCKET" $BUCKET-$(((RANDOM % 999) + 1000))
 
+#Source again to update the changes for the current session
+source systemds_cluster.config
+
 #Create systemDS bucket
-aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET --region $REGION &> /dev/null
-aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET-logs --region $REGION &> /dev/null
+#LocationConstraint configuration required regions outside of us-east-1
+if [ "$REGION" = "us-east-1" ]; then LOCATION_CONSTRAINT=""; else LOCATION_CONSTRAINT="--create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=$REGION"; fi
+aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET --region $REGION $LOCATION_CONSTRAINT &> /dev/null
+aws s3api create-bucket --bucket $BUCKET-logs --region $REGION $LOCATION_CONSTRAINT &> /dev/null
 
 # Upload Jar and scripts to s3
 aws s3 sync $SYSTEMDS_TARGET_DIRECTORY s3://$BUCKET --exclude "*" --include "*.dml" --include "*config.xml" --include "*DS.jar*"
@@ -60,11 +65,17 @@ if [ ! -f ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem ]; then
     echo "${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem private key created!"
 fi
 
+#Get the first available subnet in the default VPC of the configured region
+DEFAULT_SUBNET=$(aws ec2 describe-subnets --region $REGION \
+  --filter "Name=defaultForAz,Values=true" --query "Subnets[0].SubnetId" --output text)
+
 #Create the cluster
+#Note: Ganglia not available since emr-6.15.0: exchanged with AmazonCloudWatchAgent
 CLUSTER_INFO=$(aws emr create-cluster \
- --applications Name=Ganglia Name=Spark \
+ --applications Name=AmazonCloudWatchAgent Name=Spark \
  --ec2-attributes '{"KeyName":"'${KEYPAIR_NAME}'",
-  "InstanceProfile":"EMR_EC2_DefaultRole"}'\
+  "InstanceProfile":"EMR_EC2_DefaultRole",
+  "SubnetId": "'${DEFAULT_SUBNET}'"}'\
  --service-role EMR_DefaultRole \
  --enable-debugging \
  --release-label $EMR_VERSION \
@@ -78,7 +89,13 @@ CLUSTER_INFO=$(aws emr create-cluster \
                         "InstanceGroupType":"CORE",
                         "InstanceType":"'${INSTANCES_TYPE}'",
                         "Name":"Core Instance Group"}]'\
- --configurations '[{"Classification":"spark","Properties":{"maximizeResourceAllocation": "true"}}]'\
+ --configurations '[{"Classification":"spark","Properties":{"maximizeResourceAllocation": "true"}},
+                     {"Classification": "spark-env",
+                         "Configurations": [{
+                           "Classification": "export",
+                           "Properties": {"JAVA_HOME": "/usr/lib/jvm/jre-11"}
+                         }]
+                     }]'\
  --scale-down-behavior TERMINATE_AT_TASK_COMPLETION \
  --region $REGION)
 
@@ -89,21 +106,22 @@ set_config "CLUSTER_ID" $CLUSTER_ID
 ip_address=$(curl ipecho.net/plain ; echo)
 
 #Add your ip to the security group
-aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name ElasticMapReduce-master --description "info" &> /dev/null
+aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name ElasticMapReduce-master --description "info" --region $REGION &> /dev/null
 aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
     --group-name ElasticMapReduce-master \
     --protocol tcp \
     --port 22 \
-    --cidr "${ip_address}"/24 &> /dev/null
+    --cidr "${ip_address}"/24 \
+    --region $REGION &> /dev/null
 
 # Wait for cluster to start
 echo "Waiting for cluster running state"
-aws emr wait cluster-running --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID
+aws emr wait cluster-running --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --region $REGION
 
 echo "Cluster info:"
-export CLUSTER_URL=$(aws emr describe-cluster --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID | jq .Cluster.MasterPublicDnsName | tr -d '"')
+export CLUSTER_URL=$(aws emr describe-cluster --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --region $REGION | jq .Cluster.MasterPublicDnsName | tr -d '"')
 
 aws emr ssh --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --key-pair-file ${KEYPAIR_NAME}.pem --region $REGION \
-    --command 'aws s3 cp s3://system-ds-bucket/target . --recursive --exclude "*" --include "*DS.jar*"'
+    --command 'aws s3 cp s3://'${BUCKET}' . --recursive --exclude "*" --include "*DS.jar*"'
 
 echo "Spinup finished."
diff --git a/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config b/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
index a254bbc8649..8afed8d2bba 100644
--- a/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
+++ b/scripts/aws/systemds_cluster.config
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@
 
 KEYPAIR_NAME="SystemDSkeynamex"
 REGION="us-east-1"
-BUCKET="systemds-bucket"
-EMR_VERSION="emr-5.28.0"
+BUCKET=systemds-bucket
+EMR_VERSION="emr-7.0.0"
 
 INSTANCES_TYPE="m5.xlarge"
 MASTER_INSTANCES_COUNT=1
diff --git a/scripts/aws/terminate_systemds_cluster.sh b/scripts/aws/terminate_systemds_cluster.sh
index 2de546723c3..af4707612e4 100755
--- a/scripts/aws/terminate_systemds_cluster.sh
+++ b/scripts/aws/terminate_systemds_cluster.sh
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@
 
 source systemds_cluster.config
 
-aws emr terminate-clusters --cluster-ids $CLUSTER_ID
+aws emr terminate-clusters --cluster-ids $CLUSTER_ID --region $REGION
 
 # Wait for cluster to start
 echo "Waiting for cluster terminated state"
-aws emr wait cluster-terminated --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID
+aws emr wait cluster-terminated --cluster-id $CLUSTER_ID --region $REGION
 
 echo "Cluster: ${CLUSTER_ID} terminated."