Almost a year ago, Microsoft first demonstrated a new Microsoft "presence server" called the Microsoft Enterprise Location Server (MELS). At TechEd next week, MELS — which is has been temporarily rechristened as Microsoft Location Server (MLS) — will get its time in the limelight.

Microsoft showed off briefly MLS at its Mobility Devcon in March. At that time, the company committed to launching a private beta of MLS to a small set of early adopters, primarily ISVs and service providers, in April said Steve Lombardi, technical product manager with the MapPoint business unit.

Read Our Initial Report on MELS Here

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the private beta has, indeed, commenced, and the product is still on track to ship this year. The next version of Microsoft's MapPoint Web service is expected to ship by year-end, as well.

MLS is designed to provide enterprise customers and developers with a way to more easily deploy location-aware applications to their staffs.
The updated MapPoint will integrate the Vicinity technology that Microsoft acquired last fall, Lombardi adds. Vicinity specializes in application services and APIs for corporations that want to direct their customers to the nearest service outlet or store. That technology will synch up nicely with MLS, as well.

Microsoft developed the core MLS code base and is working with a number of location partners, such as AT&T Wireless, which is developing interfaces that will allow its wireless services to plug into MLS.

"If you want to look up someone else's or some other device's location, you need it," Lombardi explains. "It handles one-to-many connections. Each device needs to be provisioned."

While Microsoft chairman Gates didn't call out MLS by name in his Mobility Devcon keynote address, he did demonstrate a scenario that would likely take advantage of MLS technology. Gates and his cohorts demonstrated a sample applet called "Meet Me For Coffee," that uses MapPoint, Passport and other Microsoft technologies to allow mobile users to find the nearest coffee shop and meet up - all by communicating via their mobile devices.