and since i believe that you have implemented this solution with CentOS boxen... when you get a moment or five... ...would you mind detailing the "*simple* step by step basics" of what you have done... detailing the processors, cards, and pertinent hardware names, sizes, and speeds involved please?
The advanteges of Bacula are nomerous. If you are talking about enterprise grade features than you need Bacula.
There's a nice addition to it: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jbacula/
it helps you to configure Bacula much faster the firs time you use.
It has a complete documentation with examples, a helpful author and great community.
It's a very complete system, you can backup windowze and linux/unix boxes too.
I'm very happy with it.
bye, Ago