What not to back up
We do not need to back up all of the installed binaries as these can simply be reinstalled using the aforementioned "list of installed software". Of course this assumes that the installation media is available when we need to reconstruct our system. As security conscious administrators, we keep our system up-to-date by installing the vendors' patches. Over the course of time, the versions of the installed and subsequently patched software will differ significantly from the versions that came on the installation media. If these updates can be installed via the Internet (for example using Red Hat's up2date or Debian apt-get), we don't have to keep them on site.
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