Described herein are systems, methods, and software to manage communication rates between applications in a tiered application computing environment. In one implementation, a load service monitor load information associated with applications that each execute using one or more virtual nodes. The load service further determines that the load information associated with an application of the applications satisfy one or more load criteria and identifies at least one application that communicates requests to the application. Once identified, the load service communicates a notification to the at least one application to update a communication request configuration to the application.