Snapshots are a virtual view of a filesystem or raw volume at a given point in time. Snapshots enable better application availability, faster recovery, easier backup and management of large volumes of data, reduced exposure to data loss, virtual elimination of backup windows, and lower TCO. This paper includes an overview of snapshot technology, why snapshots are fast becoming the leading recovery solution, and how snapshots fit into the new information protection paradigm. The paper includes an overview of LEGATO's NetWorker PowerSnap, and its advanced data protection architecture, which allows for mixing and matching of applications and intelligent storage arrays.