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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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Sandstone Technology teams with Trend Micro to transform the banking industry by securely shifting to AWS

Teams with Trend Micro to transform the banking industry by securely shifting to AWS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since it was founded in 1996, Sandstone Technology has consistently transformed the banking industry by simplifying the customer journey and the employee experience. One of the company’s biggest milestones came when it set out to overcome a major roadblock it often faced when working with banking partners — on-site deployments within the banks themselves. Not only were the logistics involved a major pain point for the bank, the time they took to resolve was equally challenging, with 12+ months being the norm. Moving to the cloud was the solution. But the idea of doing so raised significant concerns in the highly regulated banking industry. So, to address that apprehension, Sandstone teamed with Trend Micro. Trend Micro Cloud One Conformity service uses preconfigured resources to activate, deploy, and configure all necessary security protocols on AWS. Conformity provides cloud security posture management to ensure the team’s cloud services are configured to industry and compliance best practices. Since teaming with Trend Micro and AWS, not only has Sandstone removed the on-premises pain point for its banking customers, by shifting everything to the cloud, it’s done so securely. After migrating to AWS, there hasn’t been a single reportable security incident. What’s more, by shifting their banking customers to AWS, the average solution deployment time has been shortened to just six months.

 
 

With an AWS Cloud model, we convey to our customers that they don’t have to deploy, they just have to subscribe, and we knew that would be hugely attractive for them.

Photo of Chaitanya Pinnamaneni  Chaitanya Pinnamaneni - Chief Technology Officer, Sandstone Technology
 
 

 

A HISTORY OF TRANSFORMING THE BANKING INDUSTRY, SINCE 1996

Sandstone Technology was founded more than 25 years ago by two dedicated entrepreneurs who believed technology held great things for the world of banking. The company spent two decades delivering a number of “firsts” for the industry. For example, it was the first to go to market with an internet banking solution that utilized two-factor authentication. It was also the first to deploy a device-agnostic, mobile-banking tool (using HTML 5) in Australia. Then, the company found itself facing a new challenge: as Sandstone worked with their banking customers to deploy new solutions, they frequently needed to compromise various components in order to meet the requirements of deployment teams within those banks. “Rolling things out on- premises was a huge pain point for our customer’s deployment teams,” says Chaitanya Pinnamaneni, Chief Technology Officer at Sandstone Technology. “Not only did it mean figuring out a way to fit into their systems, which was often less than ideal, it was time consuming — we want to speed up their time to market, so taking 12+ months to deploy just wasn’t pragmatic.”

 

Everyone just comes together to get things done. It’s never a question of can it be done, it always how can it be done in the best way.

Photo of Chaitanya Pinnamaneni  Chaitanya Pinnamaneni - Chief Technology Officer, Sandstone Technology
 
 
 

“YOU DON'T HAVE TO DEPLOY, YOU JUST HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE”

The team at Sandstone knew the solution was to convince customers to forgo on-premise deployments in favor of the cloud. Doing so would dramatically reduce the time and headaches involved in the process. “But this was 2018,” Pinnamaneni says “and cyber security, especially in the area of banking, was very new. It was a huge issue.” Still, Sandstone believed the cloud was the future and understood it held massive potential for its customers. “With an AWS model, we convey to customers that they don’t have to deploy, they just have to subscribe, and we knew that would be hugely attractive for them,” Pinnamaneni says. “Taking advantage of solutions like AWS LambdaAmazon DynamoDB, and Amazon EC2, was exactly what they needed.” But first, Sandstone would need to identify a robust, fortified solution to alleviate all security concerns. That would mean finding the right partner.

 

We looked at the options out there, and Trend Micro was the only one who could provide an entire suite in a virtual package. Their Cloud One platform is a single dashboard solution that offers protection for our cloud database and delivers compliance reports at any time and during the 30-day reporting cycle. That made them the easy decision.

Photo of Chaitanya Pinnamaneni  Chaitanya Pinnamaneni - Chief Technology Officer, Sandstone Technology
 
 

 

CLOUD ONE MADE TREND MICRO AN EASY DECISION

Banking systems contain highly sensitive personal identifiable information (PII), credit card numbers, and loan application information. The funds held within various accounts are also highly vulnerable. This meant that not just any partner would do. “We looked at the options out there, and Trend Micro was the only one who could provide an entire suite in a virtual package,” Pinnamaneni says. “Their Cloud One platform is a single-dashboard solution that offers protection for our cloud database and delivers compliance reports at any time for our 30-day reporting cycle. That made them the easy decision.”

In fact, choosing to partner with Trend Micro was soon validated during one particularly memorable meeting with a prospective, high-profile banking customer. “The initial tone of the meeting was highly charged and almost combative,” Pinnamaneni recalls. “Then they asked who our security partner was. I said Trend Micro and immediately the expression on his face changed. He relaxed, and the whole mood of the meeting shifted 180 degrees. That’s when I knew we’d made the right decision.”

In the years since, those sentiments have proven to be accurate. Since migrating to AWS there hasn’t been a single reportable security incident.

 
 
 

FROM 12+ MONTHS TO JUST 6

As the team at Sandstone anticipated, providing banking customers with solutions that were hosted on AWS instead of on-premise - along with partnering with Trend Micro - made everything more secure and allowed solutions to deploy faster. The company now delivers the nimble, competitive advantage its clients need. In fact, the average time to deploy has dropped from 12+ months to just six. “We were able to move fast thanks to the AWS culture and because of the way Trend Micro approaches challenges,” Pinnamaneni says. “Everyone just comes together to get things done. It’s never a question of if it can it be done, it's always how can it be done in the best way.”

 
 

NEXT UP: BUILDING A GLOBAL BANKING PLATFORM

Sandstone is confident about what it can achieve together with Trend Micro and AWS, and recently started building a global banking platform. “As we expand onto the global stage, we don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” Pinnamaneni says. “Now that we have the perfect team in place, there’s nothing holding us back.”

 
 

Partners

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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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.

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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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