Finally!

The problem that had turned out to make last week so unbearable at work has been solved (I think). In an effort that should win me points with the boss on how effectively I can work from home, I sat down an hour ago to put a fresh brain to work on the problem. I believe it's been solved. After a comprehensive test, I think all the potential sources of error have been corrected. A few minutes ago, I was able to run our application against the new database, obtaining exactly the same results, and the same throughput as with the preferred database.

Thank god that's over with!