diff --git a/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session.go b/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4ccf4ad07e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session.go
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+// Copyright Amazon.com Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"). You may
+// not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the
+// License is located at
+//
+//     http://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/
+//
+// or in the "license" file accompanying this file. This file is distributed
+// on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either
+// express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing
+// permissions and limitations under the License.
+
+package awssession
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+	"os"
+
+	"strconv"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/utils/logger"
+	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
+	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/request"
+	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
+)
+
+// Http client timeout env for sessions
+const (
+	httpTimeoutEnv = "HTTP_TIMEOUT"
+	maxRetries     = 15
+)
+
+var (
+	version string
+	log     = logger.Get()
+	// HTTP timeout default value in seconds (10 seconds)
+	httpTimeoutValue = 10 * time.Second
+)
+
+func getHTTPTimeout() time.Duration {
+	httpTimeoutEnvInput := os.Getenv(httpTimeoutEnv)
+	// if httpTimeout is not empty, we convert value to int and overwrite default httpTimeoutValue
+	if httpTimeoutEnvInput != "" {
+		input, err := strconv.Atoi(httpTimeoutEnvInput)
+		if err == nil && input >= 10 {
+			log.Debugf("Using HTTP_TIMEOUT %v", input)
+			httpTimeoutValue = time.Duration(input) * time.Second
+			return httpTimeoutValue
+		}
+	}
+	log.Info("HTTP_TIMEOUT env is not set or set to less than 10 seconds, defaulting to httpTimeout to 10sec")
+	return httpTimeoutValue
+}
+
+// New will return an session for service clients
+func New() *session.Session {
+	awsCfg := aws.Config{
+		MaxRetries: aws.Int(maxRetries),
+		HTTPClient: &http.Client{
+			Timeout: getHTTPTimeout(),
+		},
+	}
+	sess := session.Must(session.NewSession(&awsCfg))
+	//injecting session handler info
+	injectUserAgent(&sess.Handlers)
+
+	return sess
+}
+
+// injectUserAgent will inject app specific user-agent into awsSDK
+func injectUserAgent(handlers *request.Handlers) {
+	handlers.Build.PushFrontNamed(request.NamedHandler{
+		Name: fmt.Sprintf("%s/user-agent", "amazon-vpc-cni-k8s"),
+		Fn: request.MakeAddToUserAgentHandler(
+			"amazon-vpc-cni-k8s",
+			fmt.Sprintf("version/%s",version)),
+	})
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session_test.go b/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..75f7989687
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/awsutils/awssession/session_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+package awssession
+
+import (
+	"os"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestHttpTimeoutReturnDefault(t *testing.T) {
+	os.Setenv(httpTimeoutEnv, "2")
+	defer os.Unsetenv(httpTimeoutEnv)
+	expectedHTTPTimeOut := time.Duration(10) * time.Second
+	assert.Equal(t, expectedHTTPTimeOut, getHTTPTimeout())
+}
+
+func TestHttpTimeoutWithValueAbove10(t *testing.T) {
+	os.Setenv(httpTimeoutEnv, "12")
+	defer os.Unsetenv(httpTimeoutEnv)
+	expectedHTTPTimeOut := time.Duration(12) * time.Second
+	assert.Equal(t, expectedHTTPTimeOut, getHTTPTimeout())
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pkg/awsutils/awsutils.go b/pkg/awsutils/awsutils.go
index df65b83173..1cf83add95 100644
--- a/pkg/awsutils/awsutils.go
+++ b/pkg/awsutils/awsutils.go
@@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/utils/logger"
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
 
+	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/awsutils/awssession"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/ec2metadata"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/ec2wrapper"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/utils/retry"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/awserr"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/request"
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/ec2"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
@@ -313,11 +313,10 @@ func New(useCustomNetworking bool) (*EC2InstanceMetadataCache, error) {
 	cache.useCustomNetworking = useCustomNetworking
 	log.Infof("Custom networking %v", cache.useCustomNetworking)
 
-	sess, err := session.NewSession(&aws.Config{Region: aws.String(cache.region), MaxRetries: aws.Int(15)})
-	if err != nil {
-		log.Errorf("Failed to initialize AWS SDK session %v", err)
-		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "instance metadata: failed to initialize AWS SDK session")
-	}
+	sess := awssession.New()
+
+	awsCfg := aws.NewConfig().WithRegion(cache.region)
+	sess = sess.Copy(awsCfg)
 
 	ec2SVC := ec2wrapper.New(sess)
 	cache.ec2SVC = ec2SVC
diff --git a/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper/ec2metadatawrapper.go b/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper/ec2metadatawrapper.go
index b8243c45f2..66c56dc4fb 100644
--- a/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper/ec2metadatawrapper.go
+++ b/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper/ec2metadatawrapper.go
@@ -2,9 +2,8 @@
 package ec2metadatawrapper
 
 import (
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
+	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/awsutils/awssession"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/ec2metadata"
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -32,9 +31,7 @@ type ec2MetadataClientImpl struct {
 // New creates an ec2metadata client to retrieve metadata
 func New(client HTTPClient) EC2MetadataClient {
 	if client == nil {
-		awsSession := session.Must(session.NewSession(aws.NewConfig().
-			WithMaxRetries(metadataRetries),
-		))
+		awsSession := awssession.New()
 		return &ec2MetadataClientImpl{client: ec2metadata.New(awsSession)}
 	}
 	return &ec2MetadataClientImpl{client: client}
diff --git a/pkg/ec2wrapper/ec2wrapper.go b/pkg/ec2wrapper/ec2wrapper.go
index 34f0268ea2..67eac0c425 100644
--- a/pkg/ec2wrapper/ec2wrapper.go
+++ b/pkg/ec2wrapper/ec2wrapper.go
@@ -2,11 +2,11 @@
 package ec2wrapper
 
 import (
+	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/awsutils/awssession"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/utils/logger"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/ec2metadata"
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/ec2"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/ec2/ec2iface"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ type EC2Wrapper struct {
 
 //NewMetricsClient returns an instance of the EC2 wrapper
 func NewMetricsClient() (*EC2Wrapper, error) {
-	metricsSession := session.Must(session.NewSession())
+	sess := awssession.New()
 	ec2MetadataClient := ec2metadatawrapper.New(nil)
 
 	instanceIdentityDocument, err := ec2MetadataClient.GetInstanceIdentityDocument()
@@ -38,7 +38,9 @@ func NewMetricsClient() (*EC2Wrapper, error) {
 		return &EC2Wrapper{}, err
 	}
 
-	ec2ServiceClient := ec2.New(metricsSession, aws.NewConfig().WithMaxRetries(maxRetries).WithRegion(instanceIdentityDocument.Region))
+	awsCfg := aws.NewConfig().WithRegion(instanceIdentityDocument.Region)
+	sess = sess.Copy(awsCfg)
+	ec2ServiceClient := ec2.New(sess)
 
 	return &EC2Wrapper{
 		ec2ServiceClient:         ec2ServiceClient,
diff --git a/pkg/publisher/publisher.go b/pkg/publisher/publisher.go
index 5ffaf40848..8a3d1675ff 100644
--- a/pkg/publisher/publisher.go
+++ b/pkg/publisher/publisher.go
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@ import (
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
+	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/awsutils/awssession"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/ec2metadatawrapper"
 	"github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s/pkg/ec2wrapper"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
-	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws/session"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/cloudwatch"
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/service/cloudwatch/cloudwatchiface"
 
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ type cloudWatchPublisher struct {
 // New returns a new instance of `Publisher`
 func New(ctx context.Context) (Publisher, error) {
 	// Get AWS session
-	awsSession := session.Must(session.NewSession())
+	sess := awssession.New()
 
 	// Get cluster-ID
 	ec2Client, err := ec2wrapper.NewMetricsClient()
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ func New(ctx context.Context) (Publisher, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "publisher: Unable to obtain region")
 	}
-	cloudwatchClient := cloudwatch.New(awsSession, aws.NewConfig().WithMaxRetries(cloudwatchClientMaxRetries).WithRegion(region))
+	cloudwatchClient := cloudwatch.New(sess, aws.NewConfig().WithMaxRetries(cloudwatchClientMaxRetries).WithRegion(region))
 
 	// Build derived context
 	derivedContext, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
diff --git a/test/integration/go.mod b/test/integration/go.mod
index fd81626c48..29e5e08e7e 100644
--- a/test/integration/go.mod
+++ b/test/integration/go.mod
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ replace k8s.io/sample-controller => k8s.io/sample-controller v0.0.0-201908191433
 require (
 	github.com/onsi/ginkgo v1.8.0
 	github.com/onsi/gomega v1.5.0
+	golang.org/x/crypto v0.0.0-20190308221718-c2843e01d9a2 // indirect
 	k8s.io/api v0.0.0
 	k8s.io/apimachinery v0.0.0
 	k8s.io/client-go v0.0.0