diff --git a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisher.java b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisher.java
index f931cb322..24a6e4644 100644
--- a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisher.java
+++ b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/main/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisher.java
@@ -14,14 +14,20 @@
  */
 package software.amazon.kinesis.metrics;
 
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.List;
-
 import lombok.extern.slf4j.Slf4j;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.CloudWatchAsyncClient;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.CloudWatchException;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.MetricDatum;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.PutMetricDataRequest;
+import software.amazon.kinesis.retrieval.AWSExceptionManager;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
+import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
+
+import static java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS;
 
 /**
  * Publisher that contains the logic to publish metrics.
@@ -30,12 +36,17 @@
 public class CloudWatchMetricsPublisher {
     // CloudWatch API has a limit of 20 MetricDatums per request
     private static final int BATCH_SIZE = 20;
+    private static final int PUT_TIMEOUT_MILLIS = 5000;
+    private static final AWSExceptionManager CW_EXCEPTION_MANAGER = new AWSExceptionManager();
+    static {
+        CW_EXCEPTION_MANAGER.add(CloudWatchException.class, t -> t);
+    }
 
     private final String namespace;
-    private final CloudWatchAsyncClient cloudWatchClient;
+    private final CloudWatchAsyncClient cloudWatchAsyncClient;
 
     public CloudWatchMetricsPublisher(CloudWatchAsyncClient cloudWatchClient, String namespace) {
-        this.cloudWatchClient = cloudWatchClient;
+        this.cloudWatchAsyncClient = cloudWatchClient;
         this.namespace = namespace;
     }
 
@@ -56,16 +67,28 @@ public void publishMetrics(List<MetricDatumWithKey<CloudWatchMetricKey>> dataToP
             for (int i = startIndex; i < endIndex; i++) {
                 metricData.add(dataToPublish.get(i).datum);
             }
-
             request = request.metricData(metricData);
-
             try {
-                cloudWatchClient.putMetricData(request.build());
-
-                log.debug("Successfully published {} datums.", endIndex - startIndex);
-            } catch (CloudWatchException e) {
+                PutMetricDataRequest.Builder finalRequest = request;
+                // This needs to be blocking. Making it asynchronous leads to increased throttling.
+                blockingExecute(cloudWatchAsyncClient.putMetricData(finalRequest.build()), PUT_TIMEOUT_MILLIS,
+                        CW_EXCEPTION_MANAGER);
+            } catch(CloudWatchException | TimeoutException e) {
                 log.warn("Could not publish {} datums to CloudWatch", endIndex - startIndex, e);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                log.error("Unknown exception while publishing {} datums to CloudWatch", endIndex - startIndex, e);
             }
         }
     }
+
+    private static <T> void blockingExecute(CompletableFuture<T> future, long timeOutMillis,
+            AWSExceptionManager exceptionManager) throws TimeoutException {
+        try {
+            future.get(timeOutMillis, MILLISECONDS);
+        } catch (ExecutionException e) {
+            throw exceptionManager.apply(e.getCause());
+        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+            log.info("Thread interrupted.");
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/test/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisherTest.java b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/test/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisherTest.java
index 79d2d15c2..7f40266b1 100644
--- a/amazon-kinesis-client/src/test/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisherTest.java
+++ b/amazon-kinesis-client/src/test/java/software/amazon/kinesis/metrics/CloudWatchMetricsPublisherTest.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
 
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.Before;
@@ -31,8 +32,12 @@
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.CloudWatchAsyncClient;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.MetricDatum;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.PutMetricDataRequest;
+import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.PutMetricDataResponse;
 import software.amazon.awssdk.services.cloudwatch.model.StandardUnit;
 
+import static org.mockito.Matchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
 @RunWith(MockitoJUnitRunner.class)
 public class CloudWatchMetricsPublisherTest {
     private static final String NAMESPACE = "fakeNamespace";
@@ -51,6 +56,10 @@ public void setup() {
      */
     @Test
     public void testMetricsPublisher() {
+        final CompletableFuture<PutMetricDataResponse> putResponseFuture = new CompletableFuture<>();
+        putResponseFuture.complete(PutMetricDataResponse.builder().build());
+        when(cloudWatchClient.putMetricData(any(PutMetricDataRequest.class))).thenReturn(putResponseFuture);
+
         List<MetricDatumWithKey<CloudWatchMetricKey>> dataToPublish = constructMetricDatumWithKeyList(25);
         List<Map<String, MetricDatum>> expectedData = constructMetricDatumListMap(dataToPublish);
         publisher.publishMetrics(dataToPublish);