Ibm cherry picks for 0.5
This MR includes the content from MRs !12 (merged) and !13 (merged), applied on top of the release changes (and without bringing in any of the changes to master that are not desired).
This MR includes the content from MRs !12 (merged) and !13 (merged), applied on top of the release changes (and without bringing in any of the changes to master that are not desired).