diff --git a/indexing-common/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/common/s3/S3Utils.java b/indexing-common/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/common/s3/S3Utils.java
index 079f46676ca..dee3bf320f5 100644
--- a/indexing-common/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/common/s3/S3Utils.java
+++ b/indexing-common/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/common/s3/S3Utils.java
@@ -19,8 +19,10 @@
 
 package com.metamx.druid.common.s3;
 
+import com.google.common.base.Throwables;
 import com.metamx.common.logger.Logger;
 import org.jets3t.service.S3ServiceException;
+import org.jets3t.service.ServiceException;
 import org.jets3t.service.impl.rest.httpclient.RestS3Service;
 import org.jets3t.service.model.S3Bucket;
 import org.jets3t.service.model.S3Object;
@@ -28,6 +30,8 @@ import org.jets3t.service.model.S3Object;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
+import java.util.Random;
+import java.util.concurrent.Callable;
 
 /**
  *
@@ -80,4 +84,41 @@ public class S3Utils
 
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Retries S3 operations that fail due to io-related exceptions. Service-level exceptions (access denied, file not
+   * found, etc) are not retried.
+   */
+  public static <T> T retryS3Operation(Callable<T> f) throws ServiceException, InterruptedException
+  {
+    int nTry = 0;
+    final int maxTries = 3;
+    final long baseSleepMillis = 1000;
+    final double fuzziness = 0.2;
+    while (true) {
+      try {
+        nTry++;
+        return f.call();
+      }
+      catch (ServiceException e) {
+        if (nTry <= maxTries &&
+            (e.getCause() instanceof IOException ||
+             (e.getErrorCode() != null && e.getErrorCode().equals("RequestTimeout")))) {
+          // Retryable
+          final long sleepMillis = Math.max(
+              baseSleepMillis,
+              (long) (baseSleepMillis * Math.pow(2, nTry) *
+                      (1 + new Random().nextGaussian() * fuzziness))
+          );
+          log.info(e, "S3 fail on try %d/%d, retrying in %,dms.", nTry, maxTries, sleepMillis);
+          Thread.sleep(sleepMillis);
+        } else {
+          throw e;
+        }
+      }
+      catch (Exception e) {
+        throw Throwables.propagate(e);
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/server/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/loading/S3DataSegmentPuller.java b/server/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/loading/S3DataSegmentPuller.java
index 210decc1178..59100b5fdeb 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/loading/S3DataSegmentPuller.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/loading/S3DataSegmentPuller.java
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public class S3DataSegmentPuller implements DataSegmentPuller
     }
 
     try {
-      retryS3Operation(
+      S3Utils.retryS3Operation(
           new Callable<Void>()
           {
             @Override
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ public class S3DataSegmentPuller implements DataSegmentPuller
   private boolean isObjectInBucket(final S3Coords coords) throws SegmentLoadingException
   {
     try {
-      return retryS3Operation(
+      return S3Utils.retryS3Operation(
           new Callable<Boolean>()
           {
             @Override
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ public class S3DataSegmentPuller implements DataSegmentPuller
   {
     final S3Coords coords = new S3Coords(segment);
     try {
-      final StorageObject objDetails = retryS3Operation(
+      final StorageObject objDetails = S3Utils.retryS3Operation(
           new Callable<StorageObject>()
           {
             @Override
@@ -184,39 +184,6 @@ public class S3DataSegmentPuller implements DataSegmentPuller
     }
   }
 
-  private <T> T retryS3Operation(Callable<T> f) throws ServiceException, InterruptedException
-  {
-    int nTry = 0;
-    final int maxTries = 3;
-    final long baseSleepMillis = 1000;
-    final double fuzziness = 0.2;
-    while (true) {
-      try {
-        nTry++;
-        return f.call();
-      }
-      catch (ServiceException e) {
-        if (nTry <= maxTries &&
-            (e.getCause() instanceof IOException ||
-             (e.getErrorCode() != null && e.getErrorCode().equals("RequestTimeout")))) {
-          // Retryable
-          final long sleepMillis = Math.max(
-              baseSleepMillis,
-              (long) (baseSleepMillis * Math.pow(2, nTry) *
-                      (1 + new Random().nextGaussian() * fuzziness))
-          );
-          log.info(e, "S3 fail on try %d/%d, retrying in %,dms.", nTry, maxTries, sleepMillis);
-          Thread.sleep(sleepMillis);
-        } else {
-          throw e;
-        }
-      }
-      catch (Exception e) {
-        throw Throwables.propagate(e);
-      }
-    }
-  }
-
   private static class S3Coords
   {
     String bucket;