Partitioning of data is meant to be a management tool, not a query performance tuning tool. It is quite rare to get performance enhancements out of partitioned data. You have...

Do you want both versions of the software running on the system? If so, install 2014 and provide a named instance (which is generally considered a good practice...

I'm not completely sure I understand the set up or the question.

If you're asking how to upgrade your databases from 2008 to 2014, the best approach is to...

SQL Server within the VM is going to claim all the memory it can (as usual) and it won't release any. So it's not a surprise that you get 90%...

Add another column to your table that strips the leading zero and the trailing digit and use that for comparisons. That way you can index it and get decent performance....

By size in this case, I should have been more clear, how many objects?

If it's freezing on other databases, it's possibly Apex (don't intend to throw rocks here).

How big is the database?

I don't know Apex, but I know Redgate SQL Prompt. We sometimes have trouble when the database is very large. Same thing...

I haven't had to interview for quite a while, but prior to showing up for an interview at Company X, I'd go by their web site. What do they do?...