diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/vmware.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/vmware.py
index 862f13c820..ca94ae021b 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/vmware.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/vmware.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import atexit
 import os
 import ssl
 import time
+from random import randint
 
 try:
     # requests is required for exception handling of the ConnectionError
@@ -23,26 +24,44 @@ except ImportError:
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
 from ansible.module_utils.six import integer_types, iteritems, string_types
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import env_fallback
+from ansible.module_utils import six
 
 
 class TaskError(Exception):
     pass
 
 
-def wait_for_task(task):
+def wait_for_task(task, max_backoff=64, timeout=3600):
+    """Wait for given task using exponential back-off algorithm.
+
+    Args:
+        task: VMware task object
+        max_backoff: Maximum amount of sleep time in seconds
+        timeout: Timeout for the given task in seconds
+
+    Returns: Tuple with True and result for successful task
+    Raises: TaskError on failure
+    """
+    failure_counter = 0
+    start_time = time.time()
 
     while True:
+        if time.time() - start_time >= timeout:
+            raise TaskError("Timeout")
         if task.info.state == vim.TaskInfo.State.success:
             return True, task.info.result
         if task.info.state == vim.TaskInfo.State.error:
+            error_msg = task.info.error
             try:
-                raise TaskError(task.info.error)
+                error_msg = error_msg.msg
             except AttributeError:
-                raise TaskError("An unknown error has occurred")
-        if task.info.state == vim.TaskInfo.State.running:
-            time.sleep(15)
-        if task.info.state == vim.TaskInfo.State.queued:
-            time.sleep(15)
+                pass
+            finally:
+                six.raise_from(TaskError(error_msg), task.info.error)
+        if task.info.state in [vim.TaskInfo.State.running, vim.TaskInfo.State.queued]:
+            sleep_time = min(2 ** failure_counter + randint(1, 1000), max_backoff)
+            time.sleep(sleep_time)
+            failure_counter += 1
 
 
 def wait_for_vm_ip(content, vm, timeout=300):