MSMQ v Database Table

Question

An existing process changes the status field of a booking record in a table, in response to user input.

I have another process to write, that will run asynchronously

Answer 1

Service Broker was introduced in SQL 2005 and it is designed to be very quick at handling messages as the process is relatively simple (I believe its roots were in triggers). If you are concerned about scalability, in SQL 2008 they have released an independant processing executable to separate the processing from SQL Server (in standard Service Broker, everything is controlled by the SQL Server instances).

I would definitely consider using Service Broker over MSMQ but this is dependant on your SQL Development/DBA resources and their knowledge.