Create a database snapshot in CF

In my application I have a feature where users can save searches and be alerted when a match comes up in the database. I was going to have the alerts run about every hour or 2 for matches. I have one problem, I think this is going to be very resouce intensive on the system. We are at the beginning stages and we have about 1200 portfolios that the saved searches would have to search. If we have 1000+ saved searches that would be 1000+ hits to the database each hour or 2.

So what I am thinking is if I can run a query and get all the data, take a snapshot, and then run the 1000+ queries on that? I am between a rock and a hard place b/c I just do not know the best way to get this job done.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can create this system so it is scalable?

Thanks

jfill