diff --git a/glance/common/utils.py b/glance/common/utils.py
index ac379a5b73..4291e8bf2b 100644
--- a/glance/common/utils.py
+++ b/glance/common/utils.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # Copyright 2010 United States Government as represented by the
 # Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
 # Copyright 2014 SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
+# Copyright 2015 Mirantis, Inc
 # All Rights Reserved.
 #
 #    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
@@ -128,6 +129,9 @@ def cooperative_read(fd):
     return readfn
 
 
+MAX_COOP_READER_BUFFER_SIZE = 134217728  # 128M seems like a sane buffer limit
+
+
 class CooperativeReader(object):
     """
     An eventlet thread friendly class for reading in image data.
@@ -149,19 +153,68 @@ class CooperativeReader(object):
         # is more straightforward
         if hasattr(fd, 'read'):
             self.read = cooperative_read(fd)
+        else:
+            self.iterator = None
+            self.buffer = ''
+            self.position = 0
 
     def read(self, length=None):
-        """Return the next chunk of the underlying iterator.
+        """Return the requested amount of bytes, fetching the next chunk of
+        the underlying iterator when needed.
 
         This is replaced with cooperative_read in __init__ if the underlying
         fd already supports read().
         """
-        if self.iterator is None:
-            self.iterator = self.__iter__()
-        try:
-            return self.iterator.next()
-        except StopIteration:
-            return ''
+        if length is None:
+            if len(self.buffer) - self.position > 0:
+                # if no length specified but some data exists in buffer,
+                # return that data and clear the buffer
+                result = self.buffer[self.position:]
+                self.buffer = ''
+                self.position = 0
+                return str(result)
+            else:
+                # otherwise read the next chunk from the underlying iterator
+                # and return it as a whole. Reset the buffer, as subsequent
+                # calls may specify the length
+                try:
+                    if self.iterator is None:
+                        self.iterator = self.__iter__()
+                    return self.iterator.next()
+                except StopIteration:
+                    return ''
+                finally:
+                    self.buffer = ''
+                    self.position = 0
+        else:
+            result = bytearray()
+            while len(result) < length:
+                if self.position < len(self.buffer):
+                    to_read = length - len(result)
+                    chunk = self.buffer[self.position:self.position + to_read]
+                    result.extend(chunk)
+
+                    # This check is here to prevent potential OOM issues if
+                    # this code is called with unreasonably high values of read
+                    # size. Currently it is only called from the HTTP clients
+                    # of Glance backend stores, which use httplib for data
+                    # streaming, which has readsize hardcoded to 8K, so this
+                    # check should never fire. Regardless it still worths to
+                    # make the check, as the code may be reused somewhere else.
+                    if len(result) >= MAX_COOP_READER_BUFFER_SIZE:
+                        raise exception.LimitExceeded()
+                    self.position += len(chunk)
+                else:
+                    try:
+                        if self.iterator is None:
+                            self.iterator = self.__iter__()
+                        self.buffer = self.iterator.next()
+                        self.position = 0
+                    except StopIteration:
+                        self.buffer = ''
+                        self.position = 0
+                        return str(result)
+            return str(result)
 
     def __iter__(self):
         return cooperative_iter(self.fd.__iter__())
diff --git a/glance/tests/unit/common/test_utils.py b/glance/tests/unit/common/test_utils.py
index 27ae32d1f5..f67fc35541 100644
--- a/glance/tests/unit/common/test_utils.py
+++ b/glance/tests/unit/common/test_utils.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 # Copyright 2011 OpenStack Foundation
+# Copyright 2015 Mirantis, Inc
 # All Rights Reserved.
 #
 #    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
@@ -74,6 +75,44 @@ class TestUtils(test_utils.BaseTestCase):
         meat = ''.join(chunks)
         self.assertEqual('', meat)
 
+    def _create_generator(self, chunk_size, max_iterations):
+        chars = 'abc'
+        iteration = 0
+        while True:
+            chunk = chars[iteration % len(chars)] * chunk_size
+            yield chunk
+            iteration += 1
+            if iteration >= max_iterations:
+                raise StopIteration()
+
+    def _test_reader_chunked(self, chunk_size, read_size, max_iterations=5):
+        generator = self._create_generator(chunk_size, max_iterations)
+        reader = utils.CooperativeReader(generator)
+        result = ''
+        while True:
+            data = reader.read(read_size)
+            if len(data) == 0:
+                break
+            self.assertLessEqual(len(data), read_size)
+            result += data
+        expected = ('a' * chunk_size +
+                    'b' * chunk_size +
+                    'c' * chunk_size +
+                    'a' * chunk_size +
+                    'b' * chunk_size)
+        self.assertEqual(expected, result)
+
+    def test_cooperative_reader_preserves_size_chunk_less_then_read(self):
+        self._test_reader_chunked(43, 101)
+
+    def test_cooperative_reader_preserves_size_chunk_equals_read(self):
+        self._test_reader_chunked(1024, 1024)
+
+    def test_cooperative_reader_preserves_size_chunk_more_then_read(self):
+        chunk_size = 16 * 1024 * 1024  # 16 Mb, as in remote http source
+        read_size = 8 * 1024           # 8k, as in httplib
+        self._test_reader_chunked(chunk_size, read_size)
+
     def test_limiting_reader(self):
         """Ensure limiting reader class accesses all bytes of file"""
         BYTES = 1024