diff --git a/gcloud-java-datastore/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultDatastoreRpc.java b/gcloud-java-datastore/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultDatastoreRpc.java
index 4b39f7a3c4be..028027f4bc33 100644
--- a/gcloud-java-datastore/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultDatastoreRpc.java
+++ b/gcloud-java-datastore/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultDatastoreRpc.java
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 import org.json.JSONTokener;
 
 import java.net.InetAddress;
+import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -121,9 +122,17 @@ private static DatastoreRpcException translate(DatastoreException exception) {
     if (reason == null) {
       reason = HTTP_STATUS_TO_REASON.get(exception.getCode());
     }
-    return reason != null
-        ? new DatastoreRpcException(reason)
-        : new DatastoreRpcException("Unknown", exception.getCode(), false, message);
+    if (reason != null) {
+      return new DatastoreRpcException(reason);
+    } else {
+      boolean retryable = false;
+      reasonStr = "Unknown";
+      if (exception.getCause() instanceof SocketTimeoutException) {
+        retryable = true;
+        reasonStr = "Request timeout";
+      }
+      return new DatastoreRpcException(reasonStr, exception.getCode(), retryable, message);
+    }
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultStorageRpc.java b/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultStorageRpc.java
index 1e2549550544..d874f99ebb4c 100644
--- a/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultStorageRpc.java
+++ b/gcloud-java-storage/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/spi/DefaultStorageRpc.java
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -101,7 +102,11 @@ private static StorageException translate(IOException exception) {
         && ((GoogleJsonResponseException) exception).getDetails() != null) {
       translated = translate(((GoogleJsonResponseException) exception).getDetails());
     } else {
-      translated = new StorageException(0, exception.getMessage(), false);
+      boolean retryable = false;
+      if (exception instanceof SocketTimeoutException) {
+        retryable = true;
+      }
+      translated = new StorageException(0, exception.getMessage(), retryable);
     }
     translated.initCause(exception);
     return translated;