1. A self managing database system, comprising: a database; a database server that provides access to the database for a plurality of user systems; a statistics repository module configured to automatically and periodically collect and compute performance statistics of the database and database server; a plurality of database modules comprising one or more infrastructure components and one or more self-management components, each database module configured to retrieve and analyze statistics from the statistics repository module, each also configured to perform at least one of a plurality of database performance enhancement operations; and a central control module configured to interface with the database, the statistics repository module and the database modules, the control module configured to automatically analyze statistics from the statistics repository module in order to control operation of the database modules so as to enhance database performance.