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It might also be worth noting that 'professional' backup software (that aimed at larger businesses) is often quite complicated.

I'm a programmer and at my previous job we sometimes had to install and test backup software (mainly when a new version of Exchange or SharePoint was released). The infrequency meant that none of us were really familiar with the backup software packages. The result was a lot of wasted time re-learning and re-educating ourselves and all too often fighting the same battles just to get our tests performed.

In our situation that was mostly acceptable because it was a once every year or so event. But in a proper real-world scenario you want the people responsible for backups to be familiar with the software so that they are always ready to respond in a timely fashion and always know what they are doing.

But above all (no matter what the environment): Perform a regular test restore. Never just rely on the backup software saying the back up completed okay. Sometimes they lie. You can never really trust a backup set unless you've actually restored it to a new location and verified the data.