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Several years ago, we had thought about using Microsoft SQL Notification Services. At the time it seemed entirely too limiting from a feature standpoint and quite frankly we did not feel comfortable building a business plan around a 3rd party product which could ultimately make or break us as a company.

Validation was delivered recently when we discovered that Microsoft is gutting Notification Services from SQL Server 2008.

Therefore, when selecting a mass notification platform make sure your organization is NOT committed to a costly solution only to then discover the systems core engine is being discontinued by Microsoft.

This MS page: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/5/3/453739ed-cb74-46b1-b7af-f157ee71db20/ReadmeSQL2008.htm

(which it appears has now been taken a few days ago)

Had said:

5.1 SQL Server Notification Services Removed from SQL Server 2008 Notification Services will not be included as a component of SQL Server 2008, but will continue to be supported as part of the SQL Server 2005 product support life-cycle. Moving forward, support for key notification scenarios will be incorporated into SQL Server Reporting Services. Existing Reporting Services functionality, such as data driven subscriptions, addresses some of the notification requirements. Features to support additional notification scenarios might be expected in future releases."

Right after the above page was taken down, a simple search at Google for "ReadmeSQL2008.htm" produced this new published article:

Version: 10.00.1300.13 Date Published: 2/22/2008

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/5/3/453739ed-cb74-46b1-b7af-f157ee71db20/ReadmeSQLServer2008.htm

5.0 Features Removed from SQL Server

This section covers SQL Server 2005 features that are no longer included with SQL Server 2008.

5.1 SQL Server Notification Services Removed from SQL Server 2008

Notification Services is not a component of SQL Server 2008, but will continue to be supported as part of the SQL Server 2005 product support cycle. In future releases, support for key notification scenarios will be incorporated into Reporting Services.

.....Which essentially looks like a watered down version of the original article. Very ambiguous and the language shift seems to be an effort to prevent mutiny amongst NS developers. The MS community of developers just never took to NS, so what we have here is a whole new shooting match with reporting Services. No Thanks.

Mass Notification systems built on and around SQL Server Notification Services must now consider major re-writes of their alert engines. That's called "starting over" as the new engine must go through a proving process and gestation period that can take upwards of two or more years.

The best alert that your customers receive next might just be that your company is not based on SQL NS.

Desktop Alert http://blog.desktopalert.net/blogs/da_blog/archive/2008/02/16/25.aspx