Systems and methods for controlling the work load on a distributed system comprising a plurality of stages are provided. The capacity of a present stage is monitored, using either various resources of the present stage or rates of work completion and work receipt of the present stage. Information indicating the capacity of a succeeding stage are obtained and communicated to the present stage. The monitored capacity information of the present stage and the communicated information of the succeeding stage, either alone or in combination, are used to determine if a throttling action is necessary to control the load of work at the present stage. A provided throttling technique inserts an appropriate delay before the present stage to allow the present stage to process an amount of work without saturating the capacity of the present stage. This technique is applied at each stage of the distributed system to control the work load of the overall system by controlling the work load at each stage.