diff --git a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/ClientUtils.java b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/ClientUtils.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 03f2f8e791ca47..00000000000000
--- a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/ClientUtils.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
- * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
- * distributed with this work for additional information
- * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
- * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
- * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
- * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License 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 org.apache.flink.client;
-
-import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
-import java.net.URI;
-import java.net.URISyntaxException;
-
-/**
- * A class that provides some utility methods.
- */
-public class ClientUtils {
-	/**
-	 * Utility method that converts a string of the form "host:port" into an {@link InetSocketAddress}.
-	 * The returned InetSocketAddress may be unresolved!
-	 *
-	 * @param hostport The "host:port" string.
-	 * @return The converted InetSocketAddress.
-	 */
-	public static InetSocketAddress parseHostPortAddress(String hostport) {
-		// from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2345063/java-common-way-to-validate-and-convert-hostport-to-inetsocketaddress
-		URI uri;
-		try {
-			uri = new URI("my://" + hostport);
-		} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Could not identify hostname and port in '" + hostport + "'.", e);
-		}
-		String host = uri.getHost();
-		int port = uri.getPort();
-		if (host == null || port == -1) {
-			throw new RuntimeException("Could not identify hostname and port in '" + hostport + "'.");
-		}
-		return new InetSocketAddress(host, port);
-	}
-}
diff --git a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/RemoteExecutor.java b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/RemoteExecutor.java
index 51506fae3a8fa1..183077649bfb6e 100644
--- a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/RemoteExecutor.java
+++ b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/RemoteExecutor.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import org.apache.flink.optimizer.costs.DefaultCostEstimator;
 import org.apache.flink.optimizer.plan.OptimizedPlan;
 import org.apache.flink.optimizer.plandump.PlanJSONDumpGenerator;
+import org.apache.flink.util.NetUtils;
 
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
 import java.net.URL;
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@ public RemoteExecutor(String hostname, int port, URL jarFile) {
 	}
 
 	public RemoteExecutor(String hostport, URL jarFile) {
-		this(ClientUtils.parseHostPortAddress(hostport), new Configuration(), Collections.singletonList(jarFile),
+		this(NetUtils.parseHostPortAddress(hostport), new Configuration(), Collections.singletonList(jarFile),
 				Collections.<URL>emptyList());
 	}
 
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ public RemoteExecutor(String hostname, int port, Configuration clientConfigurati
 	}
 
 	public RemoteExecutor(String hostport, Configuration clientConfiguration, URL jarFile) {
-		this(ClientUtils.parseHostPortAddress(hostport), clientConfiguration,
+		this(NetUtils.parseHostPortAddress(hostport), clientConfiguration,
 				Collections.singletonList(jarFile), Collections.<URL>emptyList());
 	}
 
diff --git a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/cli/AbstractCustomCommandLine.java b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/cli/AbstractCustomCommandLine.java
index 484c391f0d932c..0cae6e72e6f97b 100644
--- a/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/cli/AbstractCustomCommandLine.java
+++ b/flink-clients/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/client/cli/AbstractCustomCommandLine.java
@@ -18,11 +18,11 @@
 
 package org.apache.flink.client.cli;
 
-import org.apache.flink.client.ClientUtils;
 import org.apache.flink.configuration.Configuration;
 import org.apache.flink.configuration.HighAvailabilityOptions;
 import org.apache.flink.configuration.UnmodifiableConfiguration;
 import org.apache.flink.util.FlinkException;
+import org.apache.flink.util.NetUtils;
 import org.apache.flink.util.Preconditions;
 
 import org.apache.commons.cli.CommandLine;
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ protected Configuration applyCommandLineOptionsToConfiguration(CommandLine comma
 
 		if (commandLine.hasOption(addressOption.getOpt())) {
 			String addressWithPort = commandLine.getOptionValue(addressOption.getOpt());
-			InetSocketAddress jobManagerAddress = ClientUtils.parseHostPortAddress(addressWithPort);
+			InetSocketAddress jobManagerAddress = NetUtils.parseHostPortAddress(addressWithPort);
 			setJobManagerAddressInConfig(resultingConfiguration, jobManagerAddress);
 		}
 
diff --git a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/NetUtils.java b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/NetUtils.java
index 1a4bb7a829f12b..11dad734304f9b 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/NetUtils.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/util/NetUtils.java
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ public static String getHostnameFromFQDN(String fqdn) {
 	 *
 	 * @return URL object for accessing host and Port
 	 */
-	public static URL getCorrectHostnamePort(String hostPort) {
+	private static URL validateHostPort(String hostPort) {
 		try {
 			URL u = new URL("http://" + hostPort);
 			if (u.getHost() == null) {
@@ -92,6 +92,25 @@ public static URL getCorrectHostnamePort(String hostPort) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Validates the "host:port" string and returns a url.
+	 *
+	 * @return URL object for accessing host and Port
+	 */
+	public static URL getCorrectHostnamePort(String hostPort) {
+		return validateHostPort(hostPort);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Validates the "hostname:port" string and returns a socket address.
+	 *
+	 * @return InetSocketAddress object for accessing host and Port
+	 */
+	public static InetSocketAddress parseHostPortAddress(String hostPort) {
+		URL url = validateHostPort(hostPort);
+		return new InetSocketAddress(url.getHost(), url.getPort());
+	}
+
 	// ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 	//  Lookup of to free ports
 	// ------------------------------------------------------------------------