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CIONET - What's next

Connecting ambitious digital leaders and businesses around the globe.

Catch up on the upcoming CIONET Events

             
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Germany Sep 9, 2025 Country Members Physical german

Frankfurt: AI Driven Logistics

Vom ersten Use Case zur strategischen Neuausrichtung CIONET lädt bereits zum vierten Mal zu einem exklusiven Roundtable für CIOs und Digitalverantwortliche aus Logistik und Handel ein. Im Mittelpunkt des Abends steht die Frage, wie Unternehmen ihre KI-Initiativen erfolgreich skalieren und aus ersten Use Cases echten strategischen Mehrwert schaffen. Microsoft 365 für Frontline Worker: Moderne Tools, die Mitarbeitende im Tagesgeschäft entlasten ServiceNow für Prozessintegration: Automatisierte End-to-End-Workflows – vom Schadensfall bis zur Retourenabwicklung KI-gestützte Disposition und Planung: Mit smarten Algorithmen zur optimierten Supply Chain Digitale Lieferketten und letzte Meile: Transparenz, Effizienz und Kundenzentrierung durchgängig gedacht

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Belgium Sep 13, 2025 All Members Physical english

CIONET Cycling Event

Join us for a wonderful ride. The ride is accessible to all levels of riders and doesn't require extensive technical skills. More information will follow soon. Looking forward to ride together!

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Germany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german

München: Cyber Security Fatigue

Cybersecurity ist längst kein reines IT-Thema mehr – sie betrifft das gesamte Unternehmen. Doch während die Bedrohungslage zunimmt, geraten viele Security-Verantwortliche an ihre Belastungsgrenzen: zwischen 24/7-Verantwortung, wachsenden Anforderungen und dem ständigen Innovationsdruck.

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Germany Sep 17, 2025 Country Members Physical german

Köln: CIO & CISO, das Rezilienz-Power-Duo

IT-Betrieb und Cybersicherheit stehen heute unter extremem Druck: steigende Komplexität, wachsende regulatorische Anforderungen (NIS2, DORA, KRITIS), chronische Ressourcenknappheit – und gleichzeitig eine Bedrohungslage, die keine Verzögerungen duldet. Trotzdem agieren viele IT- und Security-Teams noch immer in Silos. Die Folge: ineffiziente Abläufe, Tool-Wildwuchs, langsame Reaktion auf Vorfälle und unklare Verantwortlichkeiten.

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Germany Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Virtual german

Online: Nachhaltige IT - CIDO Priorität

Nachhaltigkeit ist für CIOs nicht nur ein „Nice-to-have“, sondern eine strategische Priorität – sie beeinflusst direkt die finanzielle Performance, die operative Effizienz und die langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit.

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Belgium Sep 18, 2025 Country Members Physical french

Les Rencontres: La dette technique : Un défi stratégique pour les entreprises

La dette technique est comparable à la négligence des réparations d'une maison. Ignorer un toit qui fuit peut faire gagner du temps aujourd'hui, mais cela pourrait conduire à l'effondrement du plafond plus tard. Pour remédier à la dette technique, il faut trouver et réparer ces fuites dès maintenant et mettre en place un plan d'entretien de la maison afin qu'elle soit prête pour les extensions futures. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, il faut définir des priorités stratégiques, communiquer clairement avec les parties prenantes et établir une feuille de route à long terme pour la modernisation. Cet événement se déroulera entièrement en français.

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Recent Cases

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Workplace IT delivers Enterprise Level Security through Worry-Free XDR

Recognizing the growing threat of cyberattacks, Workplace IT sought a partner that could provide advanced protection, streamline management, and offer expert support. Trend Micro's Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR solution has enabled Workplace IT to meet these needs, enhance its security posture, and provide peace of mind to its customers.

OVERVIEW

Since Workplace IT opened in 1997, as a managed service provider (MSP), its mission has been to bring enterprise-level IT service to small businesses. Today, with Trend Micro as its strategic partner since 2008, the company delivers on that mission through the use of Trend Micro™ Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR. Workplace IT ensures that its customers get the highest level of proactive network monitoring and maintenance, virus protection, and firewall protection services.

 

"Trend Micro™ Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR has improved our business, but most importantly, we sleep better at night knowing that XDR is looking at more things, that gaps are being mitigated."

Brad Bell - Lead Network Services Delivery Engineer

 

CHALLENGES

The majority of Workplace IT’s customers are small-to-medium–sized businesses with small IT security budgets and limited dedicated IT security teams. Those businesses rely on Workplace IT to provide the security they need, while balancing cost and benefits.

“Our customers look to Workplace IT to be the experts. They rely on us as their MSP to give them a road map for what to do to protect themselves from the cybersecurity threats they hear about,” says Brad Bell, lead network services delivery engineer at Workplace IT.

“Technology is changing so quickly and expertise is needed. It is too hard to build it yourself, so we looked at the various SOC service providers. Our goal was to partner with people who have the expertise to give us the backbone of security, and allow us to work with the customers,” says Bell.

 

"Worry-Free XDR gives us the ability to manage security across all of our customers to offer better protection and allows all events to be viewed together."

Mike Lenz - Network Services Engineer, Workplace IT

 
 

WHY TREND

Workplace IT leaders examined several security vendors before partnering with Trend Micro in 2008. “The vendor partnership is about more than just product and economics. We’re all in this together. For us, it was about closing our security gaps and having a partner we could openly communicate with. We look at partnerships as a long journey and focus on their people,” says Bell.

Workplace IT leadership was also looking for a vendor willing to offer modular services so they could provide pay-as-you-go options to their financially vigilant customers. Finally, they wanted a product that could easily integrate with their existing systems and processes. Trend Micro fit the bill in all areas.

 

SOLUTION

Workplace IT implemented Trend Micro™ Worry-Free Services in 2008. Worry-Free Services is a cloud-based threat protection designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. With Trend Micro™ Worry-Free XDR, protection extends beyond the endpoint to offer correlation between endpoint and email, broader visibility and analytics, and more detections and earlier, faster responses.

A solution that would enable Workplace IT personnel to see and block threats across its entire customer base was another key objective. “Before, we couldn’t see what was going on across our networks. Worry-Free XDR is constantly monitoring. We get alerts through one central dashboard so we can quickly see threats across our entire customer base and take action,” says Bell.

Workplace IT added Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR in 2020, which allowed the company to augment its services without adding resources to its team. It includes 24/7 alert monitoring by Trend Micro security experts, incident response, root cause analysis, and monthly reporting. “We didn’t want to build another department to focus on security. We wanted to partner with experts so we could spend more time focused on our customers,” says Bell. “Our goal was to partner with someone, not build it. Trend Micro was building out the SOC and we had the opportunity to influence it and decided to go with the Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR services.”

Workplace IT played a pivotal role in helping to develop the offering. They provided valuable feedback to Trend Micro’s product and executive teams to help build the Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR offering. “It was amazing to talk with Trend Micro’s leadership about our needs and gaps. They truly listened and asked a lot of questions. The Trend Micro team learned a lot about MSPs and are interested in investing in the market. As a result, the new offering brings enterprise-level security to small businesses,” says Bell.

 
 

RESULTS

Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR saves Workplace IT time, as the company no longer needs to single-handedly conduct investigations into security incidents. “If something strange happens at the workstation level, our staff aren’t trained to handle it. With Trend Micro’s security team behind us, we know they’ve got our back. We get expertise and reports that show a clear resolution we can share with our customers,” says Bell.

Bell and his team now get a full view of any security incidents. “Before, we knew there were security gaps, and we looked for a way to minimize those gaps. We weren’t sure we were seeing everything. Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR closed those gaps and allow us to see all information flowing between the cloud and end users.”

The biggest benefit is the cross-customer view that Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR enables. “We can now easily see if a security incident happening with one customer is also happening with another. It gives us the ability to quickly mitigate those threats before they cause a problem for all our customers,” says Bell.

“There were a few instances where Trend Micro took action across our customer base. For example, after a malicious email that started at one customer was sent out broadly, Trend Micro quarantined it for all users across our customer base immediately,” says Mike Lenz, network services engineer at Workplace IT. “Worry-Free XDR gives us the ability to manage security across all of our customers to offer better protection and allows all events to be viewed together.”

Bell says upgrading to Worry-Free with Co-Managed XDR has improved Workplace IT’s security posture and consequently increased its monthly recurring revenue. “Worry- Free with Co-Managed XDR has improved our business, but most importantly, we sleep better at night knowing that XDR is looking at more things, that gaps are being mitigated, and that Trend Micro is watching out for us.”

Checkout our CIONET COOKBOOK

cookbook

Embark on a culinary journey through the ever-evolving world of digital leadership with our third edition of the CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for Digital Success. Unveiling the intricate trilemma faced by today’s Master Chefs, our trailblazing European CIOs address a challenge at the nexus of customer interests, digital transformation strategies, and IT modernisation. Their secret? Synchronising the gearing between customer, business, and technology to create a frictionless movement through the digital landscape.

The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology, with the CIO as Master Chef. In order to provide the best service to its customers, a top restaurant must have the right atmosphere, an inviting menu, a well-equipped kitchen, talented and committed front-of-house and kitchen staff and smooth-running processes that ensure an enjoyable experience for diners.

CIONET TV

 
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Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge

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Isabelle Droll - CIO for Airline, Corporate, Hotels & Resorts and Sustainability at TUI - Data, Diversity, and Destinations

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Sharon Prior - CIO in transition - How Great Tech Leadership Begins with Business Thinking

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José Antonio López, Group CIO at TOUS - Jewels, Data & AI: Inside the Digital Transformation of TOUS

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Tom Tanghe - General Manager ITC EMEA at Daikin Europe - Reinventing the CIO Role

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CIOFEST 2025 - From Order Taker to Proactive Disruptor

CIONET Reports

 
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Cybersecurity in critical infrastructure

Geopolitical tensions have dominated the headlines for over two years now. In this context, the cyber threat landscape is also evolving rapidly. The protection and security of critical infrastructure – both physical and digital – is becoming increasingly important.

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HDS - From Hype to Reality Navigating the Challenges of GenAI

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Integration In An Era Of AI: Challenges And Opportunities

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Anna Kopp

Head of IT Germany and Regional Office Lead Munich, Microsoft

“The CIONET App allows us to learn from eachother and and find the courage to be authentic by hearing stories from others! Thanks to Tobias and the whole team for bringing us together:-) ”
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IT Director, IT Thinker

“The main things that I would like to get from our community of Digital Leaders are: networking, share experiences, share best practices and successful cases, and comments and recommendations about providers.”
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Vijay Anand

Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)

“The CIONET app provides a really cool platform to network and share insights.”

About CIONET

CIONET’s mission is to help IT executives become more at ease and above all more successful in their jobs. So they can do more than just keep up with change but ultimately define it. CIONET opens up a whole new universe of opportunities in IT management.

With the largest membership of corporate digital leaders across Europe, Latin America, US and Australia, CIONET has the expertise and pioneering vision to solve or address any IT management challenge.

Why join CIONET?

From our local and global events, from our publications and research to our executive education programmes, everything we do is aimed at making sure digital leaders maximise their potential.

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with digital leaders who share your interests, who face the same challenges, who care about the same topics.

Share

stories, experiences, and ideas around our shared mission.

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from our exclusive events, publications and research.

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inspiration, thought-provoking conversations, expert perspectives and exclusive first-hand content each and every day

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and make better, more well-informed decisions on how to lead your digital business.

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your potential. Realise your ambitions.

About CIONET

Join CIONET

We'd love to welcome you as the newest member of our CIONET community where Digital Leaders unite. 

You can either send us a registered handwritten letter explaining why you'd like to become a member or you can simply talk to us right here!

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