A performance optimization system includes a plurality of system components. A monitoring plug-in and a configuration plug-in are coupled to each of the plurality of system components. A monitoring engine receives monitoring information for each of the plurality of system components from their respective monitoring plug-in. A configuration engine sends configuration setting information to each of the plurality of system components through their respective configuration plug-ins. A performance optimization engine receives the monitoring information from the monitoring engine, determines a policy associated with the monitoring information and, in response, retrieves configuration setting information that is associated with the policy and sends the configuration setting information to the configuration engine in order to change the configuration of at least one of the plurality of system components.