Systems, methods, and other embodiments that manage load in request processing environments are described. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, at a backend of a request processing environment, requests transmitted by frontends. The backend is controlled to process the requests to create responses that are transmitted back to the frontends. Load of the backend processing the requests is monitored. In response to the load exceeding a threshold, a retry interval is calculated as a function of the load. In response to receiving a subsequent request from a frontend, a command is transmitted to the frontend. The command modifies operation of the frontend to wait the retry interval before re-transmitting the subsequent request as a retry request and to avoid generating an error message.