MySQL provides several features to improve performance, including flexibility in storage engines and data types, table maintenance utilities, and engine-specific optimizations. Performance can be monitored using commands like SHOW STATUS and SHOW PROCESSLIST. Slow query logging can help identify inefficient queries for optimization. The innodb_buffer_pool_size and key_buffer_size variables can be calculated based on table sizes to improve caching. Administrative tasks like user and database management, events, and security controls are demonstrated. Information_schema can be queried to view table details, columns and engines.