Can Sql Server Backups be replaced by a netapp SnapManager? In the process of getting some new magic and high speed SAN devices I was told by those crazy magic-SAN-things-administrating IT people that it will be obsolete to perform ANY Sql-Server Backups in future, as soon we start using this netapp snapmanager snapshot magic. Unfortunately I was not involved in product selection process or any meetings or demos. 

So the one person that still is very sceptic about this and not yet able to be a part of all those excited and euphoric celebrations is - me...   :-)

I do not really know much about database snapshots and (because) did not really use it so far, and I do not know if this netapp snapshot is the same snapshot/technology that sql supports... But if so, I fear that any of those snapshots are pretty useless as soon we have lost our source database, right?

So, is it really true, that we can replace database backups, transaction log backups and any other backups using those products and technology and still stay able to respond to point in time recovery requests for our databases?
Not at all. A SAN snapshot is a bitwise copy of raw disk state. If and only if all the responsibility for business continuity is on SAN storage team, this might be acceptable. For most of the business cases, this will present such RPOs and RTOs that the solution is not going to be feasible. What's more, restoring a SAN snapshot to a stable state is problematic. If the server was up and running during the snapshot, the server will return to state like someone hit a reset button. That is, a dirty filesystem, incomplete transactions and stuff. To get a clean snapshot, the server must be shut down a priori - and that's a business outage.

With SAN snapshotting only, you'd miss at least point in time recovery, as all the databases must be in simple recovery model due missing log backups. This is a killer for most recovery objectives.

Denny Cherry has written a whole article about failure points.