Are your back up systems available?

On Thursday 14th January, it was reported that the entire radar systems at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Indira Gandhi International airport at Delhi failed in the evening for about an hour. It was also reported that no takeoffs or landings could take place for more than two hours following the systems crash. The back up system also failed.The ATC system was finally restored at around 2030 hrs after reloading the system, with the entire procedure taking about three hours. The radar system collapse led to massive delays.
The above incident raises the importance of keeping back up systems always ready. A back up system is just that – it must back up when needed. Obviously something went wrong with the back up also. The only silver lining is that there must have been procedures for manual operation which was obviously put into place as there was no safety of flight issue. How good are your back ups for power supply for the DCS system? How often do you check them? Do not think that it will not happen. I had the personal experience of all 7 DCS screens of a methanol plant operating at full capacity, going blank all of a sudden! Develop procedures and train personnel for handling such situations.