Prefabricated White Space Module Time Study: Lessons from a High-Density Liquid-Cooled Deployment

Modern high-density compute deployments can require complex physical infrastructure in the IT space, including high-density power distribution, liquid cooling piping, containment, cable pathways, and supporting structural frameworks. AI workloads are a primary driver of these requirements, increasing pressure to deploy capacity quickly and predictably. Traditional construction relies heavily on onsite assembly, integration, and testing, which can extend schedules and introduce execution risk. Prefabricated IT pods shift critical work to a factory environment, where systems are engineered, assembled, and validated before delivery. In this paper, we quantitatively compare traditional and prefabricated approaches to white space deployment, drawing on installations observed at a Compass Datacenters campus. The findings demonstrate how modular pods can shorten onsite installation time from 75.5 hours to 15 hours per pod, representing an 80% reduction for the configuration studied. By shifting work offsite and enabling parallel project activities, this approach can help bring AI compute capacity online sooner.