diff --git a/monasca_common/kafka/producer.py b/monasca_common/kafka/producer.py
index 425f6c17..89e644e4 100644
--- a/monasca_common/kafka/producer.py
+++ b/monasca_common/kafka/producer.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class KafkaProducer(object):
         self._kafka = kafka_client.KafkaClient(url)
         self._producer = kafka_producer.KeyedProducer(
             self._kafka,
-            async=False,
+            is_async=False,
             req_acks=kafka_producer.KeyedProducer.ACK_AFTER_LOCAL_WRITE,
             ack_timeout=2000)
 
diff --git a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/base.py b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/base.py
index b0803f74..f6549b3e 100644
--- a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/base.py
+++ b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/base.py
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ class Producer(object):
 
     Arguments:
         client (KafkaClient): instance to use for broker communications.
-            If async=True, the background thread will use client.copy(),
+            If is_async=True, the background thread will use client.copy(),
             which is expected to return a thread-safe object.
         codec (kafka.protocol.ALL_CODECS): compression codec to use.
         req_acks (int, optional): A value indicating the acknowledgements that
@@ -250,11 +250,11 @@ class Producer(object):
         sync_fail_on_error (bool, optional): whether sync producer should
             raise exceptions (True), or just return errors (False),
             defaults to True.
-        async (bool, optional): send message using a background thread,
+        is_async (bool, optional): send message using a background thread,
             defaults to False.
-        batch_send_every_n (int, optional): If async is True, messages are
+        batch_send_every_n (int, optional): If is_async is True, messages are
             sent in batches of this size, defaults to 20.
-        batch_send_every_t (int or float, optional): If async is True,
+        batch_send_every_t (int or float, optional): If is_async is True,
             messages are sent immediately after this timeout in seconds, even
             if there are fewer than batch_send_every_n, defaults to 20.
         async_retry_limit (int, optional): number of retries for failed messages
@@ -281,7 +281,7 @@ class Producer(object):
 
     Deprecated Arguments:
         batch_send (bool, optional): If True, messages are sent by a background
-            thread in batches, defaults to False. Deprecated, use 'async'
+            thread in batches, defaults to False. Deprecated, use 'is_async'
     """
     ACK_NOT_REQUIRED = 0            # No ack is required
     ACK_AFTER_LOCAL_WRITE = 1       # Send response after it is written to log
@@ -294,8 +294,8 @@ class Producer(object):
                  codec=None,
                  codec_compresslevel=None,
                  sync_fail_on_error=SYNC_FAIL_ON_ERROR_DEFAULT,
-                 async=False,
-                 batch_send=False,  # deprecated, use async
+                 is_async=False,
+                 batch_send=False,  # deprecated, use is_async
                  batch_send_every_n=BATCH_SEND_MSG_COUNT,
                  batch_send_every_t=BATCH_SEND_DEFAULT_INTERVAL,
                  async_retry_limit=ASYNC_RETRY_LIMIT,
@@ -306,13 +306,13 @@ class Producer(object):
                  async_log_messages_on_error=ASYNC_LOG_MESSAGES_ON_ERROR,
                  async_stop_timeout=ASYNC_STOP_TIMEOUT_SECS):
 
-        if async:
+        if is_async:
             assert batch_send_every_n > 0
             assert batch_send_every_t > 0
             assert async_queue_maxsize >= 0
 
         self.client = client
-        self.async = async
+        self.is_async = is_async
         self.req_acks = req_acks
         self.ack_timeout = ack_timeout
         self.stopped = False
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ class Producer(object):
         self.codec = codec
         self.codec_compresslevel = codec_compresslevel
 
-        if self.async:
+        if self.is_async:
             # Messages are sent through this queue
             self.queue = Queue(async_queue_maxsize)
             self.async_queue_put_timeout = async_queue_put_timeout
@@ -401,7 +401,7 @@ class Producer(object):
         if key is not None and not isinstance(key, six.binary_type):
             raise TypeError("the key must be type bytes")
 
-        if self.async:
+        if self.is_async:
             for idx, m in enumerate(msg):
                 try:
                     item = (TopicAndPartition(topic, partition), m, key)
@@ -437,7 +437,7 @@ class Producer(object):
             log.warning('timeout argument to stop() is deprecated - '
                         'it will be removed in future release')
 
-        if not self.async:
+        if not self.is_async:
             log.warning('producer.stop() called, but producer is not async')
             return
 
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@ class Producer(object):
             log.warning('producer.stop() called, but producer is already stopped')
             return
 
-        if self.async:
+        if self.is_async:
             self.queue.put((STOP_ASYNC_PRODUCER, None, None))
             self.thread_stop_event.set()
             self.thread.join()
diff --git a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/keyed.py b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/keyed.py
index 78da89c9..b923594b 100644
--- a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/keyed.py
+++ b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/keyed.py
@@ -61,4 +61,4 @@ class KeyedProducer(Producer):
         return self.send_messages(topic, key, msg)
 
     def __repr__(self):
-        return '<KeyedProducer batch=%s>' % self.async
+        return '<KeyedProducer batch=%s>' % self.is_async
diff --git a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/simple.py b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/simple.py
index f13bad5d..85101858 100644
--- a/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/simple.py
+++ b/monasca_common/kafka_lib/producer/simple.py
@@ -67,4 +67,4 @@ class SimpleProducer(Producer):
         )
 
     def __repr__(self):
-        return '<SimpleProducer batch=%s>' % self.async
+        return '<SimpleProducer batch=%s>' % self.is_async