A query rewrite may be possible but we'd need to know how the table is setup (partioned or not, what partition), and what indexes are on the table. Otherwise the...

As long as the secondary is the same or higher version. This is how I upgrade servers side by side

ditto

Actually you can. I think you want to avoid adding the third node to the cluster. Sure. ALWAYSON is better though for a variety of reasons. In any case, failover...

N Way has many meanings. What are you trying to accomplish? 

With DB mirroring, or ALWAYSON too, when you failover a database (Mirroring) or an availability group (set of...

Have multiple AD Groups in SQL with the correct default database and with the correct permissions to the various databases.

I do not understand the firewall part as these...

I would consider calling a stored procedure. In the stored procedure, have a BEGIN TRY logic. In the CATCH block, feel free to translate the message any which way you...

it includes a pointer to an out of row space where it is stored. That said, it is sometimes in row, especially when it is small enough to fit in row.

You are looking at a multi tenant architecture. This does not a cloud specific architecture but can sit on the cloud nicely. There is no one size fits all, but...

did you modify the data or table definitions prior to taking the log backup?  If no changes were applied to the database itself, the log restore would update 0 pages.

You will see 0 pages if no changes happened between log backups.

To connect via the AG name you need a DNS entry for it. In general you don't connect with the AG name, but with the listener name or a CNAME...

You might get some luck from the following index:

create index IDX_... on SHIPMINTS
(SHIPMENT,ITEM,Process_Date)
INCLUDE
(QTY_Received)

I assume that QTY_Received is not selective.

Best of...

I don't believe you can avoid a disconnect. In the best case you would get a warning instead of an error, that you have disconnected and reconnected. In real life,...

I would double check the plans are the same first. Not they are not expected to be the same. They vary by server config like trace flags and by version....