diff --git a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_uninstaller.py b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_uninstaller.py
index 393e0147ff3e..adbe28f2b9d4 100644
--- a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_uninstaller.py
+++ b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_uninstaller.py
@@ -182,8 +182,6 @@ def _clean_up_kubernetes_cluster(self):
 
         if self._cfg.cloud_profile:
             env["AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE"] = self._cfg.cloud_profile
-        else:
-            env["AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE"] = AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
 
         logger.info("\n\n%sCalling kube-down ...%s\n", COLOR_GREEN, COLOR_NORM)
         AXKubeUpDown(cluster_name_id=self._name_id, env=env, aws_profile=self._cfg.cloud_profile).down()
diff --git a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_upgrader.py b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_upgrader.py
index 62403daff52c..f68543ff9b3d 100644
--- a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_upgrader.py
+++ b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/cluster_upgrader.py
@@ -209,8 +209,6 @@ def _upgrade_kube(self):
         
         if self._cfg.cloud_profile:
             env["ARGO_AWS_PROFILE"] = self._cfg.cloud_profile
-        else:
-            env["ARGO_AWS_PROFILE"] = AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
 
         logger.info("Upgrading Kubernetes with environments %s", pformat(env))
         env.update(os.environ)
diff --git a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/common.py b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/common.py
index a872ff9867d8..dd307e150a53 100644
--- a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/common.py
+++ b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/common.py
@@ -8,9 +8,13 @@
 import os
 from future.utils import with_metaclass
 
-from ax.cloud.aws import AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
 from ax.platform.component_config import AXPlatformConfigDefaults, SoftwareInfo
 
+# We should set aws profile to None if user does not provide one
+# because in python None type is different from str, we convert None
+# to string first and then finally it to None
+AWS_NO_PROFILE = "None"
+
 
 def typed_raw_input_with_default(prompt, default, type_converter):
     real_prompt = prompt + " (Default: {}): ".format(default)
@@ -20,7 +24,7 @@ def typed_raw_input_with_default(prompt, default, type_converter):
 
 class ClusterOperationDefaults:
     CLOUD_PROVIDER = "aws"
-    CLOUD_PROFILE = AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
+    CLOUD_PROFILE = AWS_NO_PROFILE
     PLATFORM_SERVICE_MANIFEST_ROOT = AXPlatformConfigDefaults.DefaultManifestRoot
     PLATFORM_BOOTSTRAP_CONFIG_FILE = AXPlatformConfigDefaults.DefaultPlatformConfigFile
 
@@ -71,7 +75,7 @@ def default_or_wizard(self):
             if self.cloud_profile is None:
                 self.cloud_profile = typed_raw_input_with_default(
                     prompt="Please enter your cloud provider profile. If you don't provide one, we are going to use the default you configured on host.",
-                    default=AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE,
+                    default=AWS_NO_PROFILE,
                     type_converter=str
                 )
 
@@ -82,6 +86,10 @@ def default_or_wizard(self):
             confirmation += "\n\nPlease press ENTER to continue or press Ctrl-C to terminate:"
             raw_input(confirmation)
 
+        # TODO: revise this once we bring GCP into picture
+        if self.cloud_profile == AWS_NO_PROFILE:
+            self.cloud_profile = None
+
 
 def validate_software_info(software_info):
     assert isinstance(software_info, SoftwareInfo)
diff --git a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/install_options.py b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/install_options.py
index 133f609602f8..4587e17f7971 100644
--- a/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/install_options.py
+++ b/common/python/ax/cluster_management/app/options/install_options.py
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@
 from netaddr import IPAddress
 
 from ax.cloud import Cloud
-from ax.cloud.aws import EC2, AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
+from ax.cloud.aws import EC2
 from ax.platform.cluster_config import AXClusterSize, AXClusterType, SpotInstanceOption
 from ax.platform.component_config import SoftwareInfo
 from .common import add_common_flags, add_software_info_flags, validate_software_info, \
-    ClusterManagementOperationConfigBase, typed_raw_input_with_default
+    ClusterManagementOperationConfigBase, typed_raw_input_with_default, AWS_NO_PROFILE
 
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ class ClusterInstallDefaults:
     CLUSTER_SIZE = "small"
     CLUSTER_TYPE = "standard"
     CLOUD_REGION = "us-west-2"
-    CLOUD_PROFILE = AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
+    CLOUD_PROFILE = AWS_NO_PROFILE
     CLOUD_PLACEMENT = "us-west-2a"
     VPC_CIDR_BASE = "172.20"
     SUBNET_MASK_SIZE = 22
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ def default_or_wizard(self):
             if self.cloud_profile is None:
                 self.cloud_profile = typed_raw_input_with_default(
                     prompt="Please enter your cloud provider profile. If you don't provide one, we are going to use the default you configured on host.",
-                    default=AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE,
+                    default=AWS_NO_PROFILE,
                     type_converter=str
                 )
 
@@ -192,9 +192,13 @@ def default_or_wizard(self):
             confirmation += "Trusted CIDRs:         {}\n".format(self.trusted_cidrs)
             confirmation += "Spot Instance Option:  {}\n".format(self.spot_instances_option)
             confirmation += "User On-Demand Nodes:  {}\n".format(self.user_on_demand_nodes)
-            confirmation += "\n\nPlease press ENTER to continue or press Ctrl-C to terminate the program if these configurations are not what you want:\n"
+            confirmation += "\n\nPlease press ENTER to continue or press Ctrl-C to terminate the program if these configurations are not what you want:"
             raw_input(confirmation)
 
+        # TODO: revise this once we bring GCP into picture
+        if self.cloud_profile == AWS_NO_PROFILE:
+            self.cloud_profile = None
+
 
 
     def validate(self):
diff --git a/platform/cluster/aws/util.sh b/platform/cluster/aws/util.sh
index 6d13ecb26471..a0bc3634e463 100755
--- a/platform/cluster/aws/util.sh
+++ b/platform/cluster/aws/util.sh
@@ -747,11 +747,19 @@ function delete-tag {
 
 # Creates the IAM roles (if they do not already exist)
 function create-iam-profiles {
-    /ax/bin/ax-upgrade-misc --ensure-aws-iam --cluster-name-id $CLUSTER_ID --aws-profile $AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE --aws-region ${AWS_REGION}
+    local aws_profile_arg=""
+    if [[ ! -z ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE+x} ]]; then
+        aws_profile_arg="--aws-profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE}"
+    fi
+    /ax/bin/ax-upgrade-misc --ensure-aws-iam --cluster-name-id $CLUSTER_ID --aws-region ${AWS_REGION} ${aws_profile_arg}
 }
 
 function delete-iam-profiles {
-    /ax/bin/ax-upgrade-misc --delete-aws-iam --cluster-name-id $CLUSTER_ID --aws-profile $AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE --aws-region ${AWS_REGION}
+    local aws_profile_arg=""
+    if [[ ! -z ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE+x} ]]; then
+        aws_profile_arg="--aws-profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE}"
+    fi
+    /ax/bin/ax-upgrade-misc --delete-aws-iam --cluster-name-id $CLUSTER_ID --aws-region ${AWS_REGION} ${aws_profile_arg}
 }
 
 # Wait for instance to be in specified state
diff --git a/platform/source/lib/ax/platform/kube_env_config.py b/platform/source/lib/ax/platform/kube_env_config.py
index 09d0085be350..d93f8b32c32f 100644
--- a/platform/source/lib/ax/platform/kube_env_config.py
+++ b/platform/source/lib/ax/platform/kube_env_config.py
@@ -201,8 +201,6 @@ def prepare_kube_install_config(name_id, aws_profile, cluster_info, cluster_conf
 
     if aws_profile:
         env["AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE"] = aws_profile
-    else:
-        env["AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE"] = AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE
 
     optional_env = {
         # Start off directly with all spot instances only for dev clusters.
diff --git a/platform/source/tools/ax-upgrade-misc.py b/platform/source/tools/ax-upgrade-misc.py
index 4e2999130709..730872ebc372 100755
--- a/platform/source/tools/ax-upgrade-misc.py
+++ b/platform/source/tools/ax-upgrade-misc.py
@@ -47,7 +47,6 @@
     if args.ensure_aws_iam or args.delete_aws_iam:
         from ax.platform.cluster_instance_profile import AXClusterInstanceProfile
         assert args.cluster_name_id, "Missing cluster name id to ensure aws iam"
-        assert args.aws_region, "Missing AWS region to ensure aws iam"
         if args.ensure_aws_iam:
             AXClusterInstanceProfile(args.cluster_name_id, args.aws_region, aws_profile=args.aws_profile).update()
         elif args.delete_aws_iam:
@@ -58,10 +57,8 @@
         name_id = args.cluster_name_id
         aws_profile = args.aws_profile
         aws_region = args.aws_region
-        assert name_id and aws_profile and aws_region, \
-            "Missing parameters to ensure s3. name_id: {}, aws_profile: {}, aws_region: {}".format(name_id,
-                                                                                                   aws_profile,
-                                                                                                   aws_region)
+        assert name_id and aws_region, \
+            "Missing parameters to ensure s3. name_id: {}, aws_region: {}".format(name_id, aws_region)
 
         AXClusterBuckets(name_id, aws_profile, aws_region).update()
 
diff --git a/platform/source/tools/master_manager.py b/platform/source/tools/master_manager.py
index 6db2016c3703..48b300f7632b 100755
--- a/platform/source/tools/master_manager.py
+++ b/platform/source/tools/master_manager.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ def run():
     parser.add_argument("cluster_name_id", help="Name of the cluster")
     parser.add_argument("command", help="Command, server or upgrade")
     parser.add_argument("--region", help="Region name")
-    parser.add_argument("--profile", help="Profile name")
+    parser.add_argument("--profile", default=None, help="Profile name")
     parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version="%(prog)s {}".format(__version__))
     usr_args = parser.parse_args()
 
diff --git a/platform/source/tools/upgrade-kubernetes.sh b/platform/source/tools/upgrade-kubernetes.sh
index a59dd09f3db9..8aafc116600c 100755
--- a/platform/source/tools/upgrade-kubernetes.sh
+++ b/platform/source/tools/upgrade-kubernetes.sh
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ ensure-aws-envs () {
         echo "Setting AWS profile to ${ARGO_AWS_PROFILE}"
         export AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE="${ARGO_AWS_PROFILE}"
     else
-        export AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE="default"
+        echo "Not setting AWS profile"
     fi
     echo "Setting AWS region to ${ARGO_AWS_REGION}"
     aws configure set region ${ARGO_AWS_REGION}
@@ -209,14 +209,18 @@ get-instance-counts() {
 
 upgrade-launch-config() {
     echo "Upgrading launch configurations ..."
+    local aws_profile_arg=""
+    if [[ ! -z ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE+x} ]]; then
+        aws_profile_arg="--profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE}"
+    fi
     /ax/bin/minion_upgrade --new-kube-version ${NEW_KUBE_VERSION} \
                            --new-kube-server-hash ${NEW_KUBE_SERVER_SHA1} \
                            --new-cluster-install-version ${NEW_CLUSTER_INSTALL_VERSION} \
                            --new-kube-salt-hash ${NEW_KUBE_SALT_SHA1} \
-                           --profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE} \
                            --region ${ARGO_AWS_REGION} \
                            --ax-vol-disk-type ${AX_VOL_DISK_TYPE} \
-                           --cluster-name-id ${CLUSTER_NAME_ID}
+                           --cluster-name-id ${CLUSTER_NAME_ID} \
+                           ${aws_profile_arg}
 }
 
 
@@ -226,7 +230,13 @@ upgrade-master () {
     echo
     echo "=== Step 2. Configure Kubernetes master."
     echo
-    /ax/bin/master_manager ${CLUSTER_NAME_ID} upgrade --region ${ARGO_AWS_REGION} --profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE}
+
+    local aws_profile_arg=""
+    if [[ ! -z ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE+x} ]]; then
+        aws_profile_arg="--profile ${AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE}"
+    fi
+
+    /ax/bin/master_manager ${CLUSTER_NAME_ID} upgrade --region ${ARGO_AWS_REGION} ${aws_profile_arg}
     rm -f ~/.ssh/known_hosts
 }