During a VSS backup, there is no opportunity for Exchange to read each database file in its entirety and to verify its checksum integrity. ... If you do not checksum-verify your VSS backups, it is possible that a damaged page could remain undetected in the database and eventually become present in all existing backups.
Although Acronis True Image takes care of hard disk and file system-level consistency via snapshot technology, it can not guarantee application-level consistency.
GreyDuckJustin seems to have nailed everything squarely on the head, actually. Acronis is, flat out, not capable of backing up system states or SQL databases or anything of that sort. It makes a great volume image in case you have to restore the whole system after a drive failure or what-have-you, but it's useless as (for example) an Exchange backup mechanism. Deploy Kaseya BUDR and other tools accordingly.
boudjIt is not completely false, and I have experieced a failure with restoring the Exch DB from an Acronis image (the Exch DB was "dirty"). MS Support was able to recover the DB, but there was some lost data (fortunately nothing worthwhile). After talking with Acronis support, they explained that their imaging application is not application aware for Exch and SQL (straight from the vendor's mouth) and do not rely on them alone to make sure you have good backups of exch and SQL (and AD & IIS Metabase too). For that matter, other apps (such as MySQL) will also have issues (unless you stop the service, backup the DB, and then restart).
far182This is completely false. We use BUDR in 100's of places. We have restored Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, and many other servers/services. We have NEVER had a single incident where we were not able to restore using BUDR alone. With Exchange and SQL it's simple. With AD you have to perform a few special steps after a restore so you don't hose your AD.