A new standard of data center design is emerging, and for the leaders tasked with building the infrastructure of tomorrow, the advantages are compelling
Where we are today
The traditional design strategies for the white space and beyond are being fundamentally challenged by the meteoric rise of AI, where rack loads of 130kW and beyond are becoming the benchmark. In 2026, we are no longer building for moderate growth; we are navigating a power war era where speed-to-market and thermal precision are metrics that matter. To navigate this, owners and developers must move beyond the traditional "stick-build" mentality and embrace alternative means of construction.
The case for modularity
For decades, white space infrastructure was treated as a series of separate silos to be integrated on-site. Traditional construction models, characterised by heavy on-site coordination, are becoming too slow for today’s buildouts. This approach has been challenged by the scale of current demand. Integrated, modular systems are essential to ensuring infrastructure delivery scales alongside AI workloads. By defaulting to modular construction, operators gain the speed and precision required to meet today's deployment timelines.
Shifting risk from the hall to the factory
Modular infrastructure serves as a powerful risk management solution by shifting the majority of fabrication to off-site, controlled manufacturing environments.
Critically, by adopting modular delivery, organisations can significantly shorten deployment timelines while improving quality control due to factory-level installation and more thorough commissioning. This approach allows systems to be assembled and validated in a controlled factory environment, reducing on-site risk and enabling faster, scalable, and more predictable integration.
The hybrid reality: Air and liquid symbiosis
While liquid-to-chip technology is essential for the highest-density GPUs, air cooling remains a vital component of the modern data hall. Even in "liquid-ready" facilities, a significant portion of heat (typically 20 to 30 percent) is still rejected into the air by power supplies, networking gear, and optics. Most modern facilities operate in a hybrid cooling model where air and liquid systems work in tandem.
Effective airflow management remains an important aspect of data center design. Hot Aisle Containment (HAC) is critical for preventing hot and cold air mixing and improving overall thermal efficiency, ensuring that even as liquid cooling takes on more of the load, air-side infrastructure remains optimised.
Konnecting the dots: Modular HAC systems
The evolution of air containment and service support systems has culminated in multi-service integrated solutions like Konnect by Tate. Unlike traditional systems that rely on complex on-site siloed service construction, Konnect is engineered as a fully integrated multi-discipline and service solution. It represents a fundamental shift in construction strategy.
Konnect systems are designed to arrive on-site as a complete assembly, significantly reducing the number of trades required in the white space. These systems are designed and built with the structural integrity and space-planning foresight to accommodate multiple services, including liquid cooling manifolds and piping alongside traditional air-cooling infrastructure. This ensures that as cooling requirements evolve, the containment system can adapt without requiring disruptive structural changes to the data hall, giving an adaptable and agile solution to cater to future iterations of data center retrofits and upgrades.
Within the white space, modular HACs deliver meaningful gains in safety and accountability in tandem with schedule improvements. By integrating engineered telescopic systems and multi-service integration, quality checks can be completed at a more ergonomic and accessible level, thus significantly reducing the need for MEWPs (Mobile Elevating Work Platforms) and working at height.
At the same time, an integrated system provides a single source of accountability, simplifying coordination, streamlining responsibility, and eliminating the friction that often arises when multiple trades and suppliers converge in the white space. This then results in a safer build, faster decision-making, and more predictable delivery.
Pre-Integration as a performance driver
The true value of modular systems that Konnect by Tate offers lies in their ability to support pre-integration of a multitude of services. Liquid cooling manifolds and control systems, busways and fibre, telecom runners and general services (fire, lighting, sensors, BMS controls) are all integrated into off-site structural systems in factory environments and validated before they reach the site, which leads to faster and more consistent performance.
This approach allows operators to deploy new capacity with a level of precision that was previously time-consuming and expensive. It eliminates the "rework tax" often found in traditional builds where different trades struggle to resolve interfaces. With modular and integrated solutions, the HAC becomes a high-quality chassis for the entire multi-service delivery strategy.
A strategic advantage
By moving toward pre-integrated, modular systems, data center operators achieve faster project timelines, safer installations, and the long-term flexibility needed to survive a rapidly changing technological landscape.
For the leaders tasked with building the infrastructure of tomorrow, the advantages are compelling. A new standard of data center design is emerging. Modularity and pre-integration are becoming increasingly essential for scalable growth with the confidence and consistency the market demands.
