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Background: Life sciences are data intensive. High throughput technologies, like "Next-Generation-Sequencing", "Phenotyping" and other -omics technologies produce a huge amount of primary data. In classic scientific publication process, primary data is usually aggregated to a number of paragraphs in a journal article and proven by figures, tables and supplementary material. So it is that the value of primary data, on which the scientific conclusions are based on, do not get proper attention. But, the responsible use and efficient availability of digital resources is an important factor in the nowadays "e-science" age. The increased attention in public as well as in the research community leads to novel strategies and concepts for primary data citation, which must be substantively, underpinned by enhancements to classic data management systems. Results: We present the JAVA-based e.!DAL-API, a comprehensive storage backend for primary data management. It stands for (electronical Data Archive Library) and implement a primary data storage infrastructure, but with an intuitive usability like a classical file system. Main features are version and meta data management, data citations, support for information retrieval, persistent identifiers and its easy integration into existing data frontends and information systems. The API has been designed and tested using experiences from several research projects and literature studies. Conclusions: Primary data preservation in life sciences is accompanied by enhanced requirements to data management systems. e.!DAL combines this novel arising requirements with features known from file systems, databases, content management and version control to one homogeneous storage system. It supports an embedded use in stand-alone JAVA software or in server mode a data repositories for collaborative, remote accessible data services. Thus, e.!DAL is an efficient complement for data frontends, information systems and data management systems. The JAVA libraries, Maven artifacts, sample code, a show case demo, and the API-documentation can be downloaded from: http://projects.ipk-gatersleben.de/eDAL-Project.