A system and method for cooperative application quiescence in a computing environment. In one embodiment, a system may include a storage device configured to store data, a plurality of applications each of which is configured to issue input/output (I/O) requests to the storage device, and a quiescence manager configured to coordinate quiescence of at least a portion of the plurality of applications in response to receiving a quiescence request, where quiescence of a given application may include completing outstanding I/O requests issued by the given application.