Japanese electronics company Hitachi Ltd. is now offering data storage services for multinational companies.

According to Mituso Yamaguchi, chief strategy officer for information and telecommunication systems at Hitachi, this move was prompted by customers' demand. He said, "They want to take advantage of our research and development capability, and our in-depth understanding of storage technology."

At first, Hitachi will only provide data storage services to domestic market companies and Japanese multinational companies. Yamaguchi said that they do not have plans for the global market yet. He added, "Multinational companies are global, so we will see how business with them develops first."

Yamaguchi assured that Hitachi's move into the storage services market would not interfere with its service provider customers operating within this sector. He simply said that the outsourcing market is expanding.

At the CeBit trade show, Hitachi unveiled various electronics product including an assortment of storage systems and plasma TVs. They also announced that two new microdisks, Mikey microdrive (8 --10 GB capacity) and Slim microdrive (30 GB -- 40 GB capacity), would be available within the year.