diff --git a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
index fd48387b21..0f4fc19171 100644
--- a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
+++ b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ public class ComputeServiceUtils {
       Builder<String, String> builder = ImmutableMap.<String, String> builder();
       builder.putAll(options.getUserMetadata());
       if (options.getTags().size() > 0)
-         builder.put("jclouds.tags", Joiner.on(',').join(options.getTags()));
+         builder.put("jclouds_tags", Joiner.on(',').join(options.getTags()));
       return builder.build();
    }
 
@@ -202,10 +202,10 @@ public class ComputeServiceUtils {
     */
    public static NodeMetadataBuilder addMetadataAndParseTagsFromCommaDelimitedValue(NodeMetadataBuilder builder,
             Map<String, String> map) {
-      String tagString = map.get("jclouds.tags");
+      String tagString = map.get("jclouds_tags");
       if (tagString != null)
          builder.tags(Splitter.on(',').split(tagString));
-      builder.userMetadata(filterKeys(map, not(equalTo("jclouds.tags"))));
+      builder.userMetadata(filterKeys(map, not(equalTo("jclouds_tags"))));
       return builder;
    }
 
diff --git a/compute/src/test/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtilsTest.java b/compute/src/test/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtilsTest.java
index 68bdcb8055..9a6c1e7015 100644
--- a/compute/src/test/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtilsTest.java
+++ b/compute/src/test/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtilsTest.java
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ public class ComputeServiceUtilsTest {
    @Test
    public void testMetadataAndTagsAsCommaDelimitedValue() {
       TemplateOptions options = TemplateOptions.Builder.tags(ImmutableSet.of("tag")).userMetadata(ImmutableMap.<String, String>of("foo", "bar"));
-      assertEquals(metadataAndTagsAsCommaDelimitedValue(options), ImmutableMap.<String, String>of("foo", "bar", "jclouds.tags", "tag"));
+      assertEquals(metadataAndTagsAsCommaDelimitedValue(options), ImmutableMap.<String, String>of("foo", "bar", "jclouds_tags", "tag"));
    }
 
    @Test