Which is precisely why I said they are a form of backup and it was not useful in disaster situations. But that's a bad word that didn't mean what I wanted (form), not my intent. Without having to type a lot more, I was trying to say as I was rushed that it does serve one backup purpose in that one can use it to restore versions of files in a pinch very easily. That is one purpose of a backup, but no, it's not a true backup to IT folks, I agree. Though it IS a backup to English students as that's what backup means in the dictionary. So, this is always a problem as using the word without defining your meaning of it can mislead folks. Strictly speaking of the meaning of the word, it is a backup. But I did say not usefuil for disasters which I thought clarified it. Apparently you thought otherwise.Unfortunately, No they are not and that is a very common mistaken.
Snapshots can indeed be stored on other machines via replication. As the guy has another machine, I was not clear where he was putting them. One can remove them from the machine they were taken on, so, they can be stored on other machines. Not familiar with QNAP so not sure if that's even possible. I realize he didn't use the word replication.