.NET Alerts Service Complements SSNS

The .NET Alerts service is a Microsoft-hosted Web service that works in conjunction with MSN Messenger and other message transports (such as Short Message Service) to route notifications to users according to their preferences and their presence information. .NET Alerts does not perform the same functions as SQL Server Notification Services (SSNS) but is complementary to it.

SSNS only generates notifications; delivering the notifications is the job of a message transport, such as e-mail. Unfortunately, if a notification must be read immediately to be useful, e-mail is not an ideal transport, since there is no guarantee that users will know that a new, important message has arrived.

Compounding the problem is that most people do not have continuous e-mail access. A mobile customer may be better served by sending notifications to wireless devices, such as wireless-equipped Pocket PCs, cell phones, or pagers. To avoid missing important notifications as they switch between devices, users could simply subscribe to have notifications sent to all of their devices simultaneously, but this would likely result in many, potentially annoying and confusing, redundant messages.