An approach to improving performance of a target system is disclosed. The approach may involve determining how similar a target system being considered is to other systems in use by other clients. For each of these other separate systems, the approach may involve determining the differences between the performance of the target system and the performance of the separate system, accounting for the level of similarity. A report can be generated that identifies performance values of the target system that are outside an acceptable range, which is based on the performance of the other separate systems. Based on this report, the administrator of the target system can consider configuration changes and upgrades to improve performance of the target system.