diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
index 6271da26a4e..e0f00ee998f 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DFSClient.java
@@ -1950,6 +1950,7 @@ public class DFSClient implements java.io.Closeable, RemotePeerFactory,
       String dnAddr = dn.getXferAddr(getConf().isConnectToDnViaHostname());
       LOG.debug("Connecting to datanode {}", dnAddr);
       NetUtils.connect(sock, NetUtils.createSocketAddr(dnAddr), timeout);
+      sock.setTcpNoDelay(dfsClientConf.getDataTransferTcpNoDelay());
       sock.setSoTimeout(timeout);
 
       OutputStream unbufOut = NetUtils.getOutputStream(sock);
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DataStreamer.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DataStreamer.java
index 5daf2ac07f5..9ccb89a0058 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DataStreamer.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/DataStreamer.java
@@ -139,6 +139,7 @@ class DataStreamer extends Daemon {
     final int timeout = client.getDatanodeReadTimeout(length);
     NetUtils.connect(sock, isa, client.getRandomLocalInterfaceAddr(),
         conf.getSocketTimeout());
+    sock.setTcpNoDelay(conf.getDataTransferTcpNoDelay());
     sock.setSoTimeout(timeout);
     sock.setKeepAlive(true);
     if (conf.getSocketSendBufferSize() > 0) {
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/HdfsClientConfigKeys.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/HdfsClientConfigKeys.java
index 992cf3a4a42..fb823e53acc 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/HdfsClientConfigKeys.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/HdfsClientConfigKeys.java
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ public interface HdfsClientConfigKeys {
   String  DFS_USER_HOME_DIR_PREFIX_KEY = "dfs.user.home.dir.prefix";
   String  DFS_USER_HOME_DIR_PREFIX_DEFAULT = "/user";
 
+  String DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_KEY =
+      "dfs.data.transfer.client.tcpnodelay";
+  boolean DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_DEFAULT = true;
+
   /**
    * These are deprecated config keys to client code.
    */
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
index 7f3ae048876..ed6cd23d804 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/client/impl/DfsClientConf.java
@@ -57,6 +57,8 @@ import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_SOCK
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_CACHE_EXPIRY_MSEC_KEY;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_SEND_BUFFER_SIZE_DEFAULT;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_SEND_BUFFER_SIZE_KEY;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_DEFAULT;
+import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_KEY;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_TIMEOUT_KEY;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_USE_DN_HOSTNAME;
 import static org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.client.HdfsClientConfigKeys.DFS_CLIENT_USE_DN_HOSTNAME_DEFAULT;
@@ -135,6 +137,8 @@ public class DfsClientConf {
   private final List<Class<? extends ReplicaAccessorBuilder>>
       replicaAccessorBuilderClasses;
 
+  private final boolean dataTransferTcpNoDelay;
+
   public DfsClientConf(Configuration conf) {
     // The hdfsTimeout is currently the same as the ipc timeout
     hdfsTimeout = Client.getTimeout(conf);
@@ -172,6 +176,9 @@ public class DfsClientConf {
         CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.IO_FILE_BUFFER_SIZE_KEY,
         CommonConfigurationKeysPublic.IO_FILE_BUFFER_SIZE_DEFAULT);
     defaultChecksumOpt = getChecksumOptFromConf(conf);
+    dataTransferTcpNoDelay = conf.getBoolean(
+        DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_KEY,
+        DFS_DATA_TRANSFER_CLIENT_TCPNODELAY_DEFAULT);
     socketTimeout = conf.getInt(DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_TIMEOUT_KEY,
         HdfsConstants.READ_TIMEOUT);
     socketSendBufferSize = conf.getInt(DFS_CLIENT_SOCKET_SEND_BUFFER_SIZE_KEY,
@@ -407,6 +414,13 @@ public class DfsClientConf {
     return writeByteArrayManagerConf;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * @return whether TCP_NODELAY should be set on client sockets
+   */
+  public boolean getDataTransferTcpNoDelay() {
+    return dataTransferTcpNoDelay;
+  }
+
   /**
    * @return the socketTimeout
    */
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index dba28c3162f..586632f5ce1 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -905,6 +905,9 @@ Release 2.8.0 - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-9777. Fix typos in DFSAdmin command line and documentation.
     (Wei-Chiu Chuang via umamahesh)
 
+    HDFS-9700. DFSClient and DFSOutputStream should set TCP_NODELAY on sockets
+    for DataTransferProtocol (Gary Helmling via iwasakims)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HDFS-8026. Trace FSOutputSummer#writeChecksumChunks rather than