Data vs Database management

I wrote this article a few years ago noting a change in paradigm where data was more important than database.... meaning the ACID paradigm enforced by the database engine was somewhat an old fashioned way of thinking of data storage.... Is this true? Any point of view? please comment.

http://clementhuge.over-blog.com/article-best-practice-data-management-in-a-transactional-environment-data-versus-database-management-110783712.html