What effort? It runs automatically every hour. They include that they buy a new drive on which backups are written and archive the old one. Presumably they buy drives that are big enough to have a full backup and a reasonable about of space for the diffs (a drive 50% larger than the one being backed up is typically sufficient).
Since Time Machine is in addition to other backup methods, they don't need to make an effort to keep a Time Machine drive offsite.
What I meant is, you have to physically connect the drive, unless you're using a Network drive, and I wanted to know how their setup works. I tried setting up Time Machine via Network Drive once and it didn't work so well, so I'm trying to learn.
Time Machine has been the only way I've been able to get the majority of my family's devices to consistently back up. Thankfully it's a mostly-mac house. Have an always-on Debian machine which acts as a NAS. Install and configure netatalk and avahi.
Edit /etc/netatalk/afp.conf:
[Time Machine]
path = /path/to/backups
time machine = yes
And you're done. Don't lift a finger to do backups ever again.
I run a usb cable from the back of my imac to a drive hidden underneath my desk. It is effectively zero maintenance, because time machine removes old backups to make space for the new.
For laptops I would aim for a setup where the drive is connected to whatever dock solution is in place. MacOS would backup automatically while the laptop was docked.
Using Time Machine via network is the only way I have ever used it. I initially used Apple Time Capsule (RIP), and now just use a Time Machine compatible NAS.
Since Time Machine is in addition to other backup methods, they don't need to make an effort to keep a Time Machine drive offsite.