It is true that NetApp is abandoning SnapManager in favor of CommVault's Intellisnap. We are in the process of migrating to the same. Planning stages at present. I'll certainly get back with feedback once I have something intelligent to add. 🙂

As to the snaps being backups, they kind of are. You are correct that they are snapping deltas at the storage level but they put that all together to be capable of actually restoring that to SQL in the same sense as we would understand that and even allow for KEEP_REPLICATION option to be passed in as a valid input parameter. Not sure about all the details as I haven't gone too far into it but I have tested that functionality as it is a critical piece for us. CV's Intellisnap will allow for the same functionality.

I do know that the CV product Intellisnap is recognized by multiple storage vendors including NetApp, Hitachi and EMC. I'm sure the other big names are on the list as well. If that is the direction that you are heading then it seems like you will be in good hands. Not sure if NetApp is recommending anything different at this point though.

Should be fun.... 🙂