I agree, this is the first shop I worked at that it is a requirement to have it turned off. As you noted normally I am use to just using it and calling it up very useful utility. Before PowerShell I used osql, then sqlcmd and a huge fan of xp_cmdshell to call my cmdline utilites for deploying code or querying servers for information. I would like to see the deck on it you mentioned. You can email me at sqlscripters@Hotmail.com I am older and have been around for a while so don't laugh but this is how I monitored my SQL engines back in the day and it worked well keeping the code inside each data center:
Had a Create Proc with encryption above...Also used the OLE to call CDONTS then CDOSYS mail objects for sending alerts. Yeah that's old school....
DECLARE @result int
EXEC @result = master..xp_cmdshell 'Osql -SSQLSERVER -E , 'NO_OUTPUT'
Print @result
IF (@result = 0)
Begin
Return
End
Else
Begin
Print 'Send alert'
End
Declare @fr varchar(50),@t varchar (50),@sub varchar(50), @bod varchar(55),@time varchar(19)
Select @time = (Left(CONVERT(varchar, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, 0), 19))
Select @fr = '*'
select @sub = 'Alert'
select @bod = 'MSSQLService is down on ServerName '+@time