Auckland, 17 February 2021 – Straker Translations Limited (ASX: STG) has chosen IBM Cloud to scale up translation services for 55 languages and target larger customers worldwide. 

Straker is growing rapidly and has acquired multiple companies in recent years, the latest of which is Utah based Lingotek in January 2021. 

The two year public cloud contract expands Straker’s relationship with IBM adding more capacity to grow, and provides an open foundation for Straker Translations to easily integrate its growing portfolio of business services and technologies. This underpins its goal of leading the industry in AI-driven translation solutions for document, website and media content translation, subtitling and voice over production. 

Straker will now host its entire translation service on IBM Cloud and will be able to offer global translation services at greater scale, while also leveraging IBM’s industry-leading cloud security to address specific data privacy requirements across its key geographies. 

Straker Translations’ CEO and Co-Founder, Grant Straker, says, “The $57B translation industry is being fundamentally changed by the accelerating use of AI across all facets of localisation, and to compete globally from New Zealand we rely on IBM’s leadership in Cloud and data security.” 

“Working together we have a platform that allows us to grow while also improving translation technologies for 55 languages, potentially reaching a huge proportion of the global community.”  

IBM New Zealand Country Leader David Hook says “IBM Cloud lays the foundations for open innovation – allowing for the seamless integration of technologies, while also helping organisations across industries meet security, resiliency, performance, and global deployment requirements. As Straker Translations builds a global business from New Zealand, it has the infrastructure to scale up existing services and introduce new ones as it adapts to changing industry needs.” 

IBM Cloud features 'Keep Your Own Key' encryption capabilities backed by one of the highest level of security certification commercially available. This gives enterprises the ability to retain control of their own encryption keys so clients are the only ones who can control access to their data.

Straker recently announced that it had been appointed as a Strategic Translation Service Provider to support IBM Cloud Services, IBM Adaptive Translations Services and IBM Global Media Localisation. In May 2020, Straker provided sub-titling for IBM’s premier annual conference, THINK, held virtually due to COVID-19. This required creating sub-titles for 6,000 minutes of video, equivalent to 920,000 words, within just 10 days.  

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For more information see www.ibm.com/nz or www.strakertranslations.com.