From the Yahoo Link above:
"Monday morning a critical power control module at our Technology Command Center malfunctioned, causing a surge to the transformer and a loss of power," Delta COO Gil West said in a statement on Tuesday. "The universal power was stabilized and power was restored quickly."
However, the trouble obviously didn't end there. A Delta spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider earlier today that the airline's backup systems failed to kick in."
And here we have the fundamental fault in the design. The 'backup' system should be operating all the time as a part of the live system. To all intents and purposes you have a widely distributed system that usually operates very efficiently.
When part of the system fails all that happens is that the remaining part of the system carries on operating slightly less efficiently. There is no impact at all on operations and no failover to worry about.
I have no doubt that the IT people would want to have a fault tolerant system but the beancounters will have said how often do things fail? What is the cost of 2 computer centers? We are not paying that they can stay in the same building.... and there will be a Delta beancounter with his abacus out saying now that they still won on the deal.