Cisco Retires the Software News and Product Alert Tool

Cisco is retiring the Software News and Product Alert Tool email alert system on June 26, 2009. The Software News and Product Alert Tool will be replaced by the Cisco Notification Service, which provides enhanced alerting capabilities.

Your Software News and Product Alert Tool email subscription profiles and groups will be migrated automatically to the Cisco Notification Service when the new tool is launched on June 26, 2009.

You are not required to take any action as a result of the transition to the new Cisco Notification Service tool, and there will be no interruption of service to your current subscriptions and notifications.

Once the new Cisco Notification Service tool is launched, emails will be sent from a new email address. Please update your email rules, filters, or SpamFilters to accept this email address: CiscoNotificationService@cisco.com

We appreciate your interest in and use of the Software News and Product Alert Tool and look forward to your continued use of our new, expanded system.

Please use the Cisco.com feedback form to share your comments, questions, or concerns.

What is Cisco Notification Service?

Cisco Notification Service allows a user to subscribe and receive important Cisco product and technology information. Specifically, this service provides the user with an improved unified subscription experience and the ability to choose the timing of notifications, as well as the notification delivery method (email or RSS feed). Notification types for products and technologies include Security Advisories, Security Responses, Field Notices, End of Life Announcements, Known Bugs, and Software Updates.

Cisco Notification Service Benefits

User Experience Enhancements

• Centralized location for Cisco customers, partners, and employees to subscribe, change subscriptions, view notification history, and unsubscribe to notifications
• Expansion of support-based alerts to include both document-based and data drive alerts
• Ability to group several subjects (alert-type and product) into one common email to receive all the information at once (which reduces the spam affect of previous tools)
• User notification history reports that are available within the interface (for up to 6 months) for email-based profiles
• Integration with the Cisco Support Website My Cisco backpack utility to retrieve notification history

Distribution Methods

• Email: Includes links and descriptions.
• Email (short form): Includes no item descriptions. The email short form is meant for translation to your SMS/pager gateways. (Gateway is not supplied.)
• Elemental RSS v2.0 feeds: Includes feeds per subject (alert-type and product) for consumption by any RSS reader (a client RSS application, portal, web site, or browser).

Distribution Timing

• Email timings offered: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month
• RSS 2.0 feeds: 1 day, 7 days, 30 days

Alert types offered:

Document-Based

• Security Advisory, Security Notice, and Security Response: Lists security documents for a product or products that have been published or republished within the timeframe set in the alert.
• Field Notice: Lists field notices for a product or products that have been published or republished within the timeframe set in the alert.
• End of Life (End of Sales or Support): Lists documents for an end-of-life product or products that have been published or republished within the timeframe set in the alert.

Data Driven

• Software updates: Lists information about a product or software version for which the state has changed within the timeframe set in the alert. States include Publish (new), Deferred / Obsolete, and (for Cisco IOS) Certified and software Security Advisory.
• Known bugs against a product or software version: Lists all bugs for a product or software version that have changed status within the timeframe set in the alert.
• Bugs by bug ID: Lists information about a bug that has changed status within the timeframe set in the alert. (Available for email distribution only.)