A technique may include receiving, from an external applications controller, by a mobile edge computing applications manager provided on a mobile edge computing server that is in proximity to a radio access network, a mobile edge computing application criteria that includes management rules for managing at least a portion of a lifecycle of a mobile edge computing application; and storing the mobile edge computing application criteria. In an example embodiment, a technique may further include managing at least a portion of a lifecycle of the mobile edge computing application based on the mobile edge computing application criteria.