A structured store built so things can be found again reliably. Its whole discipline is retrieval.
English compound of data (Latin data, things given) + base (Greek βάσις, basis, a stepping, foundation, via Latin and French); a structured store built on the discipline of retrieval rather than merely of keeping.
Its own compound says the discipline plainly: a foundation set beneath things already given, so what was handed over can be found again rather than merely kept. Storage without that foundation is only a pile with a name.