1. An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a database residing in the memory; a query residing in the memory that references the database; and a query optimizer residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, wherein the query optimizer determines performance in executing the query using a stored access plan, compares the performance in executing the query with a stored performance specification that corresponds to the query, and generates a new access plan if the performance in executing the query using the stored access plan exceeds the stored performance specification that corresponds to the query.