Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge
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Belgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english
A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership.Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.This is more than a celebration—it’s an opportunity to reconnect, reflect, and recharge with your fellow digital leaders. Don't miss this exclusive experience packed with inspiring talks, networking opportunities, and special recognitions that highlight the best of CIONET’s history and future.Let’s celebrate the past, present, and future of the digital community you helped build.
Read MoreBelgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english
A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership. Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.
Read MoreBelgium 2-9-25 All TRIBERS Virtual english
You’ve been asked a simple question: “What does it cost to host this application?” But the answer is anything but simple. The platform sits across multiple data centres. The app spans a few VMs, shares a backup system, uses licensed monitoring, and touches five different teams. Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete. And yet, you still need to provide a number, clear, explainable, and grounded in reality.
Read MoreBelgium 9-9-25 Squad Only Physical english
As Belgium navigates the complexities of GDPR and various data sovereignty regulations, organizations across multiple industries face both challenges and opportunities in managing their data across borders. The quest for compliance often intersects with the need for business growth, raising questions about the balance between protection and progress. How can companies effectively own and safeguard their data while ensuring compliance without stifling innovation and expansion in a multi-industry landscape?
Read MoreBelgium 11-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english
You’ve built the portal. Added the chatbot. Rolled out self-service. But your support lines are still ringing. And your frontline teams are still improvising. If you want digital services to feel seamless, not just look polished, this session brings you back to where value is felt: at the frontline.
Read MoreItaly Sep 25, 2025 Invitation Only Physical italian
Nel percorso verso l’AI e la trasformazione digitale, dati e automazione sono gli elementi centrali di ogni strategia tecnologica. Ma senza una governance chiara, rischiano di diventare non solo fonte di inefficienza, ma anche di rischi e incoerenza. Come garantire che i dati siano completi, accessibili e affidabili? Come automatizzare le operation IT e i processi aziendali mantenendo controllo, compliance e sicurezza? Durante questa roundtable esclusiva, organizzata da CIONET Italia e IBM, affronteremo: La governance come abilitatore di dati affidabili e automazione sicura. Come prepararsi a un’adozione dell’AI realmente scalabile. Il ruolo di controllo, resilienza e gestione del rischio nell’innovazione.
Read MoreBelgium Oct 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
AI isn’t just another tool. It changes how we work, how we think, how we organise ourselves.Yet most organisations still approach it like a digital upgrade, deploying assistants, automating workflows, testing use cases inisolation.The results are predictable. Short-term wins. Long-term confusion.Effort spent. Value unclear.Many companies can’t connect AI to their actual strategic goals,and the promised ROI never materialises.At the same time, something deeper is shifting.AI can now reason, decide, adapt. Not just mimic processes butcontribute to them.The technology is evolving, but the way we implement it hasn’tcaught up.If your AI still fits inside a single department, you’re likely solvingthe wrong problem.If it works only for individuals, you're missing how your teamsactually deliver value.If it replaces people instead of supporting them, you're buildingfor today, not tomorrow.The next step isn’t more AI. It’s the right AI.Built for your business, your teams, your way of working.Not a tool to add but a structure to build around.Are we ready to treat AI as a shared capability, not a scatteredexperiment?Can we move beyond individual efficiency and build systems thatcollaborate, learn and adapt with us?Those are the questions we’ll explore at the round table.
Read MoreGermany Oct 28, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Am 28. Oktober lädt CIONET CIOs und Digital Leaders nach Köln ein: hier stellen wir reale Anwendungsfälle vor, in denen KI-Agenten Aufgaben autonom übernehmen, Prozesse beschleunigen und Entscheidungen vorbereiten – mit messbarem Nutzen für das Business.
Read MoreFrance Nov 4, 2025 Country Members Physical french
À l’ère des mutations géopolitiques et réglementaires, l’établissement d’une souveraineté numérique est devenu un élément stratégique essentiel pour les entreprises. Ce dialogue stratégique mettra en lumière le rôle fondamental du réseau dans la mise en place du contrôle, de la confiance et de la résilience. Nous explorerons comment une infrastructure moderne et résiliente permet d’appliquer des politiques de gestion des données et d’assurer la continuité opérationnelle. Ce dialogue stratégique, réservé à un groupe restreint de pairs, est conçu pour permettre aux leaders du numérique d’échanger sur l’un des enjeux les plus urgents aujourd’hui. Nous discuterons des réseaux « sovereign-ready » et débattrons des préoccupations croissantes autour de la souveraineté des données, qui motivent l’adoption de politiques de confidentialité et de protection des données de plus en plus strictes à l’échelle mondiale.
Read MoreNetherlands Nov 10, 2025 Public Physical english
CIONET Nederland vertrekt met een groep Nederlandse CIO's en digital leaders 10 t/m 12 november 2025 voor de geheel verzorgde CIO Innovation Trip naar de Web Summit in Lissabon, Portugal. Reis jij mee of neem je collega(s) mee!
Read MoreItaly Sep 25, 2025 Invitation Only Physical italian
Nel percorso verso l’AI e la trasformazione digitale, dati e automazione sono gli elementi centrali di ogni strategia tecnologica. Ma senza una governance chiara, rischiano di diventare non solo fonte di inefficienza, ma anche di rischi e incoerenza. Come garantire che i dati siano completi, accessibili e affidabili? Come automatizzare le operation IT e i processi aziendali mantenendo controllo, compliance e sicurezza? Durante questa roundtable esclusiva, organizzata da CIONET Italia e IBM, affronteremo: La governance come abilitatore di dati affidabili e automazione sicura. Come prepararsi a un’adozione dell’AI realmente scalabile. Il ruolo di controllo, resilienza e gestione del rischio nell’innovazione.
Read MoreBelgium Oct 16, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english
AI isn’t just another tool. It changes how we work, how we think, how we organise ourselves.Yet most organisations still approach it like a digital upgrade, deploying assistants, automating workflows, testing use cases inisolation.The results are predictable. Short-term wins. Long-term confusion.Effort spent. Value unclear.Many companies can’t connect AI to their actual strategic goals,and the promised ROI never materialises.At the same time, something deeper is shifting.AI can now reason, decide, adapt. Not just mimic processes butcontribute to them.The technology is evolving, but the way we implement it hasn’tcaught up.If your AI still fits inside a single department, you’re likely solvingthe wrong problem.If it works only for individuals, you're missing how your teamsactually deliver value.If it replaces people instead of supporting them, you're buildingfor today, not tomorrow.The next step isn’t more AI. It’s the right AI.Built for your business, your teams, your way of working.Not a tool to add but a structure to build around.Are we ready to treat AI as a shared capability, not a scatteredexperiment?Can we move beyond individual efficiency and build systems thatcollaborate, learn and adapt with us?Those are the questions we’ll explore at the round table.
Read MoreGermany Oct 28, 2025 Country Members Physical german
Am 28. Oktober lädt CIONET CIOs und Digital Leaders nach Köln ein: hier stellen wir reale Anwendungsfälle vor, in denen KI-Agenten Aufgaben autonom übernehmen, Prozesse beschleunigen und Entscheidungen vorbereiten – mit messbarem Nutzen für das Business.
Read MoreFrance Nov 4, 2025 Country Members Physical french
À l’ère des mutations géopolitiques et réglementaires, l’établissement d’une souveraineté numérique est devenu un élément stratégique essentiel pour les entreprises. Ce dialogue stratégique mettra en lumière le rôle fondamental du réseau dans la mise en place du contrôle, de la confiance et de la résilience. Nous explorerons comment une infrastructure moderne et résiliente permet d’appliquer des politiques de gestion des données et d’assurer la continuité opérationnelle. Ce dialogue stratégique, réservé à un groupe restreint de pairs, est conçu pour permettre aux leaders du numérique d’échanger sur l’un des enjeux les plus urgents aujourd’hui. Nous discuterons des réseaux « sovereign-ready » et débattrons des préoccupations croissantes autour de la souveraineté des données, qui motivent l’adoption de politiques de confidentialité et de protection des données de plus en plus strictes à l’échelle mondiale.
Read MoreNetherlands Nov 10, 2025 Public Physical english
CIONET Nederland vertrekt met een groep Nederlandse CIO's en digital leaders 10 t/m 12 november 2025 voor de geheel verzorgde CIO Innovation Trip naar de Web Summit in Lissabon, Portugal. Reis jij mee of neem je collega(s) mee!
Read MoreThumbay Group reinforces Cybersecurity with Trend Micro
The Thumbay Group, a leading healthcare conglomerate in the UAE, faced escalating cybersecurity threats in an increasingly digitalized healthcare landscape. Trend Micro's comprehensive cybersecurity suite emerged as the ideal choice, enabling the Thumbay Group to fortify its security posture and safeguard its critical operations.
OVERVIEW
The Thumbay Group was established in 1998 by Dr. Thumbay Moideen, founder president, and is an international business conglomerate with a strong focus in the healthcare field, based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Thumbay Group includes 46 pharmacies, eight hospitals, and one university hospital, along with medical research, diagnostics, health communication, wellness, laboratories, and nutrition.
The Thumbay Group’s Network of Academic Hospitals, the constituent teaching hospitals of Gulf Medical University, is one of the largest in the UAE, with patients from more than 175 countries. Gulf Medical University has students from 86 nationalities, as well as faculty and staff from 50 different countries.
With threats against the UAE’s healthcare industry increasing in volume and complexity, the Thumbay Group needed a centralized cybersecurity system that extended beyond the endpoints.
Akram Moideen Thumbay
Director of Thumbay Technologies
CHALLENGES
Despite progress in recent years, the healthcare industry is a prime target for cybercriminals seeking out protected health data and sensitive user information. The industry has been challenged by ransomware, malware, and phishing attacks, as well as vulnerabilities in the cloud.
Initially, the Thumbay Group only secured its endpoints, but as the organization advanced its digital transformation, security needed to keep up. The Thumbay Group needed a centralized system that expanded beyond the endpoint to prevent new and more complex threats and vulnerability exploits. With all of the entities under the umbrella of the Thumbay Group being interconnected, a compromise at a single point would threaten the entirety of the organization’s network.
“With threats against the UAE’s healthcare industry increasing in volume and complexity, the Thumbay Group needed a centralized cybersecurity system that extended beyond the endpoints,” says Akram Moideen Thumbay, director of Thumbay Technologies.
Due to its close relationship with the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention, the organization is under the strict provision to conform to the IT regulations adopted by the nation’s healthcare industry. As well, the Thumbay Group must adhere to the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) standard, an internationally-recognized set of guidelines governing data security in healthcare.
The combination of a rapid change in policies by the UAE government and the advent of COVID-19 has led many healthcare providers to adopt technologies at a much faster rate than in previous years. Teleconsultation and the sharing of digital medical records externally have done wonders for the industry, however, as with most great change, there are risks—an expanded threat landscape.
Our security transformation with Trend Micro provided us with a 360-degree security approach, with real-time visibility, instant reports for meetings and compliance purposes, and quick distribution of updates and patches.
Akram Moideen Thumbay
Director of Thumbay Technologies
WHY TREND
After experiencing several hands-on demos and an all-inclusive proof of concept, the Thumbay Group was confident in Trend Micro’s industry-leading solutions, robust protection, and full-time support. Trend Micro’s level of threat detection proved far superior to the Thumbay Group’s legacy IT antivirus platform and other vendors.
From the outset, Trend Micro worked closely with the Thumbay Group’s IT division to identify the right solutions that would aid the organization in reinforcing its security posture. Trend Micro also conducted a systems health check across the entire network to pinpoint areas of concern.
In addition to delivering a superior package, Trend Micro’s offering fulfilled one of the Thumbay Group’s key requirements: A one-stop-shop solution with a 360-degree security approach. Proving infinitely more manageable than the legacy platform, Trend Micro’s solution have enabled the IT team to manage the entire spectrum of the group’s security from a single interface.
SOLUTION
The Thumbay Group adopted several Trend Micro solutions across endpoints, network, and data centers, leading with Trend Micro Apex One™. It’s unique, advanced endpoint protection platform provides the Thumbay Group with exceptional protection against an ever-growing variety of threats without compromising performance and effectiveness.
In addition, the Thumbay Group has deployed Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ to secure its data center (physical and virtual workloads) and Trend Micro™ TippingPoint™ to defend its network and improve the protection of vulnerable applications and systems. Then, with Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Analyzer, the Thumbay Group could enable a Connected Threat Defense strategy by sharing threat intelligence between the Trend Micro and third-party security solutions to provide an automated response and faster detection of complex threats.
Trend Micro’s solutions were able to fulfill a key requirement, which was securing network traffic within each clinic, the network traffic between the clinics and headquarters, and internet traffic. At its university hospital, the Thumbay Group also uses network security to curb attack vectors coming from what students are doing from their unprotected endpoints.
Following the implementation of Trend Micro’s solutions, the Thumbay Group has been able to reduce the number of daily attacks significantly and identify compromised endpoints quickly across the entire network. Because the console can be accessed from anywhere, a lot of the monitoring is now handled by a remote monitoring team, which frees up local staff to perform other IT tasks.
Additionally, the security teams have found themselves spending less time personally checking endpoint incident sources—everything is now handled from a centralized point—and they receive reports for compliance requirements in a timely fashion.
Trend Micro’s flexibility allowed the installation of both software as a service (SaaS) and on-premises solutions where needed, saving critical bandwidth for day-to-day healthcare operations. With the rise in teleconsultations amid COVID-19, Trend Micro solutions are also helping the Thumbay Group to secure connections within the hospital, as well as the connections to patients at home.
RESULTS
Hospitals cannot function if their systems are not running. With Trend Micro, the Thumbay Group greatly improved its security posture, detecting roughly 7,600 malicious communications as part of its initial system analysis across the healthcare group, which that was promptly neutralized within mere minutes. Further, over a threeweek period, TippingPoint stopped around 600k attempted attacks on the Thumbay Group’s environment, including more than 10k attacks that were critical and dangerous.
Over a one-month period, Deep Security was able to detect and protect 2,498 vulnerabilities from being exploited on nine critical servers, using virtual patching.
WHAT'S NEXT
As the next stage of its digital transformation, the Thumbay Group is considering centralizing its data in a data center and leading an organization-wide change of culture in prioritizing security. The Thumbay Group is also in discussion about using Trend Micro™ XDR for its remote security operations center (SOC), helping to reduce the time for detection, response, and investigation.
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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.
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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Vice president IT & Compliance, VisionaryRCM (A Carlyle Grp Company)
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