1. A system comprising: at least one processor; and a design manager embodied via executable instructions stored on a machine readable storage device for execution by the at least one processor, the design manager including: a request receiving engine that receives a request for an estimate size of a first compressed index associated with a first database index that is based on a database table; a base index engine that obtains a plurality of values indicating sizes of a plurality of second compressed indexes associated with a plurality of respective second database indexes other than the first database index, the second database indexes based on the database table; a table sample locator that determines whether a database table sample associated with the database table is stored in a table sample storage device; a sample storage engine that initiates storage of a random sample, as the database table sample in the table sample storage device, the random sample including a subset of rows included in the database table, the base index engine obtaining the plurality of values based on one or more compression fraction values associated with the database table sample; and a size estimate engine that determines the estimate size of the first compressed database index based on one or more of the plurality of values.