Well, the AH doesn't really have any close alliances to anyone, so I won't feel spoken to on that account.
Something I'd like to point out is that the construction cycle is still set to 80,000 instead of the usualy 400,000. That's five times the normal calculations in a five day increment. Setting this back to calculate building, orbital movement and other stuff to once every five days should increase the performance significiantly if it's just the number of factions and colonies that's taxing your system.
Other than that, disabling orbital movement should give at least a minor boost (more so if it continues to be calculated every day, instead of every five days).