'Admin error': AWS in dead company data centre planning application snafu in Oxfordshire
- Reference: 1642071727
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/13/aws_planning_app_oxford/
- Source link:
[1]
Former Didcot power station cooling towers stand idle on the horizon in Didcot, Oxfordshire
AWS is currently building at least three new data centre sites in the UK: one at [2]Bracknell , another at Burderop near Swindon, and the third at the site of the former [3]Didcot A power station in Oxfordshire.
The cloud services badass has used shell companies registered in Delaware in the US to submit planning applications for the first two, such as Mullhaven Properties LLC
[4]PDF
in the case of the Burderop site, as [5]detailed by the local Swindon Advertiser , which noticed the payments to Swindon Borough Council as part of the agreement went through Amazon Data Services UK.The use of such shell companies was undoubtedly used to conceal Amazon's involvement in the planning procedure, and there could be various reasons for this. There may have been fears that the planning application might prompt an adverse reaction from those living in the area, or perhaps even have led to inflated costs if it were known that a global giant such as Amazon was involved. Or perhaps AWS simply wanted to make it more difficult for rivals to find about its expansion plans. The strategy is very commonplace in applications to build server farms – as evidenced by [6]Google and other cloud firms' numerous forays into land acquistion.
Dissolved... and not in Delaware
However, the planning application for the Didcot development is different, and appears to have been registered in the name of a company that was dissolved in 2015. This was spotted by Alan Turnbull of Secret Bases, who alerted The Register to the anomaly, and has also [7]published details on that site.
For the Didcot development, the name of the applicant listed on the [8]planning application with South Oxfordshire District Council is a Mr S Denton, under the company name of Willow Developments LLC, with the address given as 155 Wellingborough Road, Rushden, Northants.
Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that this is not a Delaware address, but turns out to be the offices of a company called Elsby & Co accountants. By curious coincidence, it appears that there was a company called Willow Developments Ltd registered at that address, but that particular company was dissolved on 4 August 2015.
[9]
[10]Willow Developments Ltd was registered in the name of a Sean Denton, who now operates another business, through which we were able to contact him. Denton told us that he had no knowledge of the Didcot planning application, and insisted he was not involved in any way.
[11]
[12]
We also contacted Elsby & Co, which was understandably careful in what information it could divulge, but informed us there was no company called Willow Developments registered at those offices.
[13]UK regulators to scrutinise cloud resilience in response to financial services sector's reliance on the fluffy stuff
[14]AWS power failure in US-EAST-1 region killed some hardware and instances
[15]AWS flicks the switch on an Indonesian region
[16]AWS unveils Graviton3 Arm chips and more. But the real story is the slide from IaaS to packaged solutions
Meanwhile, a glance at the planning application shows that it was actually submitted by an agent acting on behalf of a client company. In this case, the agent is listed as [17]RPS Group plc , a professional services firm that offers project management and consultancy services.
We contacted RPS and asked if the company could clear up the confusion over Willow Developments. In a statement, a spokesperson for the company told us: "We are aware that an administrative error was made on the application whereby the publicly available contact details for Willow Developments Ltd were mistakenly used on the application form, instead of those for Willow Developments LLC."
Willow Developments LLC is indeed registered at an address in the small Mid-Atlantic US state of Delaware, and is thus likely to be the shell company used to conceal the identity of the company behind the Didcot development.
[18]
How such a mix-up could happen is not clear, but we're prepared to give RPS Group the benefit of the doubt and assume that someone made a genuine mistake when filling in the application form.
Whether such a mix-up has implications for the planning permission is another matter. The Register sought a legal opinion on the case, but it appears unlikely that this will have any repercussions, especially as planning permission was apparently granted on 9 September 2021. RPS told us that it is making the relevant local planning authorities aware of the error.
AWS has refused to comment. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/01/11/shutterstock_didcot.jpg
[2] https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/rg12-1hn-amazon-data-services-uk-limited/
[3] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/exclusive-aws-behind-bid-build-two-data-centers-site-didcot-power-station-uk/
[4] https://pa1.swindon.gov.uk/publicaccess/files/EB91B32326225377D708349ABEDD078E/pdf/S_21_1760--938653.pdf
[5] https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/19548301.confirmed-amazon-will-use-swindon-computer-centre/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/18/google_is_developing_yet_another_600_million_server_farm_in_texas/
[7] https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/secret5.htm?permalink=data-centres
[8] https://data.southoxon.gov.uk/ccm/support/Main.jsp?MODULE=ApplicationDetails&REF=P21/S0274/FUL#exactline
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YeBauJ1J3ordlDAu5w9T7AAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[10] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07258191
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YeBauJ1J3ordlDAu5w9T7AAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YeBauJ1J3ordlDAu5w9T7AAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/11/uk_financial_cloud_dependence/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/22/aws_outage/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/14/aws_flicks_the_switch_on/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/01/aws_reinvent_graviton_3/
[17] https://www.rpsgroup.com/
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YeBauJ1J3ordlDAu5w9T7AAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Concealed planning applications
... preferential treatment from the Minister of Economic Affairs ...
... against several recommendations from civil servants at the Department of Economic Affairs ...
... severely hinder the CO2 reduction goals ...
... very little economic benefit in the form of jobs, direct and indirect.
No surprise there.
It's more or less on par with the usual everywhere.
But ...
Surprise !!! -----> ... there's now a new Minister for Economic Affairs.
Kudos for whoever took care of that. 8^D
The cherry on top would be a thorough investigation.
Now, if it would only set a world-wide example ...
Best,
O.
Re: Concealed planning applications
Kudos for whoever took care of that.
The fall of the previous cabinet (on an entirely different matter, and before this became public), the ensuing elections and uncommonly lengthy negotiations on forming a new coalition.
So, more or less democratic process as usual.
Set the rules
Multinationals are not the only things capable of defining the rules.
Set your own rules. First of all, no tax rebates. At all. Next, mandatory presence for the next 30 years. Any abandonment of service before that time is subject to penalty equal to the average amount of revenue times the number of years not present before the limit.
Note that I said revenue , not benefits .
Re: Concealed planning applications
"Same is currently happening here in the Netherlands"
Ditto for France. It's so usual that even the mainstream media are looking into some of those hidden DC projects.
"The one thing that pleases me about the choice for that particular location is that it's below sea level."
ah ah ! You're cheeky ! No such thing in here, sadly :)
Re: Concealed planning applications
> The one thing that pleases me about the choice for that particular location is that it's below sea level.
A whole new definition of 'pulling the plug' on a project!
Gripping stuff...
Rather close together
Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together? Bracknell, Didcot and Swindon are all basically on the M4. Sure, many of their customers are also in that corridor but one would have thought a bit of geographic diversity would be welcomed by their customers? A single major storm sweeping along the Thames Valley could severely impact all 3 together: power, communications, staff, supplies.
I can see the point in the former Didcot power station site. But Bracknell must surely be very expensive land. Why not one in the North West and one in the East Midlands (or somewhere like Lincolnshire), as well as one in Didcot?
Or are these not all datacentres? The locations would make much more sense if they were warehouses.
Re: Rather close together
> Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together? Bracknell, Didcot and Swindon are all basically on the M4.
So they have low latency between the sites so databases work, the network is fast etc etc.
It's the same reason why the banks have their backup DCs in London's commuter belt.
Re: Rather close together
It's the same reason why the banks have their backup DCs in London's commuter belt.
Isn't most of this at Vauxhall? Not that I've been near that place for at least two decades, but that's where it was at the time. We had a couple of E10000s room heaters there :).
The town of a thousand roundabouts ...
I can understand Bracknell if you want to tap into an existing pool of experienced IT talent. Didcot should be a cheap brownfield site with excellent grid connections.
It's Swindon that's got me beat!
Re: The town of a thousand roundabouts ...
> It's Swindon that's got me beat!
THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT (damn it)
(and Intel)
Re: The town of a thousand roundabouts ...
I don't think the geographic proximity of available talent is such an issue for something like this. My understanding is that for security the minimum number of people even know were the DC is, nevermind having physical access to it. The majority of administrative work is done remotely, so only need a relatively small pool of staff onsite for installing/replacing hardware.
Re: The town of a thousand roundabouts ...
"It's Swindon that's got me beat!"
20 miles from Corsham?
Re: Rather close together
I know a company a DC for DR hosting into Godalming a few years ago.
Also, if you read the Malcom Campbell page linked from the article then you'll learn where quite a few banks' DCs are.
Re: Rather close together
Latency and the speed of light. Basically, AWS runs "Regions" (e.g. eu-west-2 is somewhere around London) in which are multiple "Availability Zones" (i.e. data centres). If your data centres are too far apart, you'll start hitting latency issues with certain services which replicate data within a region, so you need to keep them relatively close together to remain performant.
As you've rightly pointed out, this does entail keeping them in the same "blast radius" of certain events which is why you should be looking to have a DR solution in another region to cover for the rare cases of an entire region going out. That said, the more common event is a networking/maintenance SNAFU which takes out a region rather than natural disaster.
Re: Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together?
Maybe the guy installing all the servers only has one boot floppy and a bicycle...
Re: Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together?
Floppies? Luxury!
Punch cards all the way!
:)
Re: Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together?
Paradise. We had to manually type in the operating system from memory every morning.
Re: Why on earth would AWS want to build 3 datacentres so close together?
You were lucky to have something to type on! We had to input our operating system using binary switches ...
...and when I say "binary switches" I mean manually pressing together bare wires that had thousands of volts going through them...
...all while standing in a puddle because the server room was in the gents!
Re: Rather close together
How many major storms actually hit that corridor though? I haven't seen too many report of hurricanes there.. Bracknell is just up the road from me.
In fact, one of my former employers made used of a datacentre which was literally a stones throw on the same estate as Waitrose office/distribution.
Re: Thames Valley Storms
The Hurricane of 1987 did a huge amount of damage around Bracknell/Reading. I spent three hours working with a bunch of Gurkas clearing the road from Hook towards Reading. I was lucky in that I had a chainsaw in the back of my car. Those guys moved a heck of a lot of timber that morning.
Even last weekend, a tree came down not far from Bracknell just missing a care home.
but using fake/shell companies... Can they sink any lower?
Hiding the next step in their plan to rule the world. Nasty.
Let's go Amazon.
The use of shell companies / straw buyers is fairly common in the US. When Disney was buying up square miles of land in Florida, it used, if memory serves, Buena Vista Development among others.
Concealed planning applications
"The use of such shell companies was undoubtedly used to conceal Amazon's involvement in the planning procedure, and there could be various reasons for this. There may have been fears that the planning application might prompt an adverse reaction from those living in the area, or perhaps even have led to inflated costs if it were known that a global giant such as Amazon was involved."
Same is currently happening here in the Netherlands, Facebook Meta intends to build a datacentre near Zeewolde, Southern Flevoland, but that it are them that are behind that plan was unknown until someone involved in a tangential matter blabbed that it was FaceMeta wanting to build there.
But in contrast with Amazon a datacentre, especially a dedicated one from a giant like FaceMeta, Google or Microsoft, doesn't offer much in the way of local jobs. Of course the quality of jobs at an Amazon warehouse can be debated, but the number of bods running around in it is a fair bit larger than in a DC. Nevertheless, FaceMeta got a preferential treatment from the Minister of Economic Affairs who leaned hard on Tennet, the national energy distribution system operator, to provide them with a dedicated substation and sufficient green energy. This goes against several recommendations from civil servants at the Department of Economic Affairs that this would severely hinder the CO2 reduction goals while bringing very very little economic benefit in the form of jobs, direct and indirect. For the time being the municipal council of Zeewolde has given the green light, but this affair has triggered action to suspend that until national guidelines are in place, especially concerning area/location and energy use, and the Eerste Kamer (Upper Chamber of Parliament) has spoken against the plan. There's also the snag that half the area on which it is planned falls under the Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, the government department owning real estate, which had already put a stop on sale of agricultural area.
So, the last word hasn't been said about this matter, And in the meantime there's now a new Minister for Economic Affaiirs.
The one thing that pleases me about the choice for that particular location is that it's below sea level.