diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 4f2a84ce8a6..20791be6f25 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ name: Build
 on: [push, pull_request]
 
 permissions:
-  contents: read  #  to fetch code (actions/checkout)
+  contents: read  # to fetch code (actions/checkout)
+  packages: read  # to fetch private images from GitHub Container Registry (GHCR)
 
 jobs:
   tests:
@@ -35,6 +36,9 @@ jobs:
       NODE_OPTIONS: '--max-old-space-size=4096'
       # Project name to use when running "docker compose" prior to e2e tests
       COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME: 'ci'
+      # Docker Registry to use for Docker compose scripts below.
+      # We use GitHub's Container Registry to avoid aggressive rate limits at DockerHub.
+      DOCKER_REGISTRY: ghcr.io
     strategy:
       # Create a matrix of Node versions to test against (in parallel)
       matrix:
@@ -114,6 +118,14 @@ jobs:
           path: 'coverage/dspace-angular/lcov.info'
           retention-days: 14
 
+      # Login to our Docker registry, so that we can access private Docker images using "docker compose" below.
+      - name: Login to ${{ env.DOCKER_REGISTRY }}
+        uses: docker/login-action@v3
+        with:
+          registry: ${{ env.DOCKER_REGISTRY }}
+          username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
+          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
+
       # Using "docker compose" start backend using CI configuration
       # and load assetstore from a cached copy
       - name: Start DSpace REST Backend via Docker (for e2e tests)
diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker.yml b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
index d0b4cd0939f..bae8c013005 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker.yml
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ on:
   pull_request:
 
 permissions:
-  contents: read  #  to fetch code (actions/checkout)
+  contents: read  # to fetch code (actions/checkout)
+  packages: write # to write images to GitHub Container Registry (GHCR)
 
 jobs:
   #############################################################
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 8fac7495e1f..e395e4b90e2 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # This image will be published as dspace/dspace-angular
 # See https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/tree/main/docker for usage details
 
-FROM node:18-alpine
+FROM docker.io/node:18-alpine
 
 # Ensure Python and other build tools are available
 # These are needed to install some node modules, especially on linux/arm64
@@ -24,5 +24,5 @@ ENV NODE_OPTIONS="--max_old_space_size=4096"
 # Listen / accept connections from all IP addresses.
 # NOTE: At this time it is only possible to run Docker container in Production mode
 # if you have a public URL. See https://github.com/DSpace/dspace-angular/issues/1485
-ENV NODE_ENV development
+ENV NODE_ENV=development
 CMD yarn serve --host 0.0.0.0
diff --git a/Dockerfile.dist b/Dockerfile.dist
index 98e2e32ab54..be72de4afc4 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.dist
+++ b/Dockerfile.dist
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Test build:
 # docker build -f Dockerfile.dist -t dspace/dspace-angular:dspace-8_x-dist .
 
-FROM node:18-alpine AS build
+FROM docker.io/node:18-alpine AS build
 
 # Ensure Python and other build tools are available
 # These are needed to install some node modules, especially on linux/arm64
@@ -26,6 +26,6 @@ COPY --chown=node:node docker/dspace-ui.json /app/dspace-ui.json
 
 WORKDIR /app
 USER node
-ENV NODE_ENV production
+ENV NODE_ENV=production
 EXPOSE 4000
 CMD pm2-runtime start dspace-ui.json --json
diff --git a/docker/cli.yml b/docker/cli.yml
index 93fb0f5ee2c..7c17b14b1bd 100644
--- a/docker/cli.yml
+++ b/docker/cli.yml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ networks:
     external: true
 services:
   dspace-cli:
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-cli:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-cli:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
     container_name: dspace-cli
     environment:
       # Below syntax may look odd, but it is how to override dspace.cfg settings via env variables.
diff --git a/docker/db.entities.yml b/docker/db.entities.yml
index 17414eb9920..464253f07be 100644
--- a/docker/db.entities.yml
+++ b/docker/db.entities.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 # # Therefore, it should be kept in sync with that file
 services:
   dspacedb:
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-loadsql"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-loadsql"
     environment:
       # This LOADSQL should be kept in sync with the URL in DSpace/DSpace
       # This SQL is available from https://github.com/DSpace-Labs/AIP-Files/releases/tag/demo-entities-data
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml b/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
index 6ff2a509c9f..d2589bb3f32 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-ci.yml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ services:
       # This allows us to generate statistics in e2e tests so that statistics pages can be tested thoroughly.
       solr__D__statistics__P__autoCommit: 'false'
       LOGGING_CONFIG: /dspace/config/log4j2-container.xml
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x-test}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x-test}"
     depends_on:
     - dspacedb
     networks:
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ services:
   # NOTE: This is customized to use our loadsql image, so that we are using a database with existing test data
   dspacedb:
     container_name: dspacedb
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-loadsql"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-loadsql"
     environment:
       # This LOADSQL should be kept in sync with the LOADSQL in
       # https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/main/dspace/src/main/docker-compose/db.entities.yml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ services:
   # DSpace Solr container
   dspacesolr:
     container_name: dspacesolr
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
     networks:
       - dspacenet
     ports:
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-dist.yml b/docker/docker-compose-dist.yml
index de28699c013..03e5e9da709 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-dist.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-dist.yml
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ services:
       DSPACE_REST_HOST: sandbox.dspace.org
       DSPACE_REST_PORT: 443
       DSPACE_REST_NAMESPACE: /server
-    image: dspace/dspace-angular:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-dist
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-angular:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}-dist"
     build:
       context: ..
       dockerfile: Dockerfile.dist
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml b/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
index a35bfdfd099..37a5d23e77b 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose-rest.yml
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ services:
       # from the host machine. This IP range MUST correspond to the 'dspacenet' subnet defined above.
       proxies__P__trusted__P__ipranges: '172.23.0'
       LOGGING_CONFIG: /dspace/config/log4j2-container.xml
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x-test}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x-test}"
     depends_on:
     - dspacedb
     networks:
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ services:
   dspacedb:
     container_name: dspacedb
     # Uses a custom Postgres image with pgcrypto installed
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-postgres-pgcrypto:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
     environment:
       PGDATA: /pgdata
       POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dspace
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ services:
   # DSpace Solr container  
   dspacesolr:
     container_name: dspacesolr
-    image: "${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-solr:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
     networks:
       - dspacenet
     ports:
diff --git a/docker/docker-compose.yml b/docker/docker-compose.yml
index e98f6f9599d..8e85520f9fa 100644
--- a/docker/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker/docker-compose.yml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ services:
       DSPACE_REST_HOST: localhost
       DSPACE_REST_PORT: 8080
       DSPACE_REST_NAMESPACE: /server
-    image: dspace/dspace-angular:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}
+    image: "${DOCKER_REGISTRY:-docker.io}/${DOCKER_OWNER:-dspace}/dspace-angular:${DSPACE_VER:-dspace-8_x}"
     build:
       context: ..
       dockerfile: Dockerfile