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Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge
Italy 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.
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Belgium 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.
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Germany 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.
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France 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.
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Netherlands 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!
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APA-IT simplifies access to diverse content with single sign-on
Austria's national public broadcaster sought to make it simple for Austrian citizens to access and share media services. Read this customer case study to find out why APA-IT recommended Red Hat's SSO technology, a Keycloak enterprise-level sister product, for this successful venture.
Austria’s national public broadcaster wanted to make it easier for Austrian people to access
media services and share their preferences between media providers. The broadcaster needed
a single sign-on (SSO) solution and turned to its technology partner, APA-IT, for help. APA-IT
offers full-service solutions focused on the areas of media solutions and outsourcing. The solution needed to be ready quickly, work across all popular media channels, and cope with peak
loads. Because the broadcaster’s experience with Keycloak had been positive, APA-IT recommended Red Hat’s SSO technology, Keycloak’s enterprise-level sister product. Red Hat’s SSO
technology easily integrates and customizes for all of Austria’s media providers, scales to meet
peak loads, and makes it more efficient for Austria’s media consumers to access content from
different providers.
Simplifying access to streaming services
Recent years have seen a significant upsurge in people accessing media services. During the
pandemic lockdowns, for instance, streaming services helped people pass the time of day. In Austria,
people access the media services of the national public broadcaster through their bespoke identity
management solution. But regulatory changes meant the broadcaster needed to upgrade that solution. Working closely with almost all of Austria’s major media companies, it initiated the MediaKey
project to make it more efficient for people to access media services and share their preferences
between media providers.
The broadcaster turned to technology partner APA-IT for help building a SSO experience for
Austrian citizens. “They wanted to implement an identity management system for almost all major
media companies in Austria,” said Clemens Prerovsky, CEO of APA-IT. “Customers already logged in
could consume media across different providers from 1 account.”
The solution needed to be ready in less than 6 months, work across all popular media channels—
including TV, streaming, and websites—and cope with peak loads during popular events, especially
Austria’s ski races. “MediaKey would need to manage 2 million users and manage 400 logins per
second,” said Christoph Kofler, Innovation Manager at APA-IT’s implementation partner, Gepardec.
“We started in April 2021, and our goal was to have MediaKey ready by September.”
Implementing a highly scalable and extensible SSO solution
APA-IT and Gepardec worked closely with the broadcaster to identify a robust, reliable, and highly
scalable identity management solution. The broadcaster already had experience with Keycloak, a
single sign-on identity and access management product from the open source community. “The
broadcaster’s experience with Keycloak showed it to be a mature and scalable product, making Red
Hat’s SSO technology—its enterprise-level sister product—a good choice for mission-critical projects,
such as MediaKey,” said Kofler.
As the broadcaster’s long-term technology partner, with extensive knowledge of its technology and
business, APA-IT managed the project. Architects from Gepardec designed and implemented the
solution, which runs on-premise in 1 of APA-IT’s datacenters. Although the partners had different
roles, they collaborated closely as a single team.
With MediaKey such a huge and mission-critical project, designing an optimal architecture was
quite a challenge. APA-IT and Gepardec turned to Red Hat for help. “There are few Red Hat’s SSO
technology installations as large as MediaKey,” said Kofler.“ Red Hat Consulting’s input during the
design phase was really important for creating an architecture for the long-term success of MediaKey,
ensuring it is scalable, maintainable, upgradable, and extensible in the future.”
Red Hat’s SSO technology Product Management team helped the implementation teams gain a clear
picture of the technology’s future direction—insight that would be essential for APA-IT and Gepardec
to guide the broadcaster into the future evolution of MediaKey. “The upgrade path includes a cloudnative version of Red Hat’s SSO technology, based on Red Hat build of Quarkus, that can run in Red
Hat OpenShift, which will be of interest to us,” said Kofler.
Offering peace of mind at peak times for media companies and users alike
Scaled to meet peak loads of 400 logins per second
Since its launch, MediaKey has kept pace with demand. With Red Hat’s SSO technology at its core, it
scaled throughout Austria’s ski season—coping with 400 logins per second at peak times.
“Red Hat’s SSO technology is very scalable,” said Kofler. “It’s a mature piece of software that is very
good in peak load scenarios. It’s, therefore, a good choice for critical applications.”
Eased integration thanks to support for open standards
Red Hat’s SSO technology supports open standards to ensure media providers across Austria could
join the MediaKey initiative. “Red Hat’s SSO tehcnology conforms to open standards, such as OpenID
Connect,” said Kofler, “which made it very easy for all the media providers to integrate it with
their own systems.”
While each media provider has its own login system, MediaKey provides an additional way for
customers to log on and access providers’ content. Once registered with MediaKey, Austria’s media
customers can log onto any media site that supports the access management solution and then
quickly and easily access any other site that supports it.
Simplified customization thanks to its open source roots
The high levels of extensibility and flexibility offered by Red Hat’s SSO technology proved to be critical to the project’s success. “Red Hat’s SSO tehcnology has great capabilities to be extended,” said
Kofler. “Being open source, you can look into the source code to understand how it works, which is
important when building custom extensions.”
Gepardec adapted Red Hat’s SSO technology to include an age verification system and provide
some custom key performance indicators (KPIs). The age verification system, which runs in Red Hat
OpenShift®, checks that users can only access age-appropriate content. The KPIs, which include
logins per second, the total number of users, and new registrations per day, help the broadcaster
understand how MediaKey is performing at a business level.
Kofler also commented on the importance of Red Hat’s SSO technology conforming to open standards, such as OpenID Connect. “Conformance to open standards was extremely important because
it made it very easy for the media providers to integrate with their own logins.”
Extending project successes
Today, MediaKey is the broadcaster’s main solution for customer logins, respecting users’ privacy by
storing vital information—namely, their login details and nothing more. More major media sites across
Austria have even implemented it as an add-on to their core identity and access management
solution. With the success of MediaKey to date, the broadcaster plans to take advantage of the solution for its new media streaming platform.
Together, APA-IT and the broadcaster are exploring Red Hat’s SSO technology for Red Hat
OpenShift—a cloud-native version of single sign-on technology—as a likely upgrade path for
MediaKey.
“Red Hat’s SSO technology is really important for the long-term success of the MediaKey solution,”
said Kofler. “Red Hat’s technology ensures MediaKey is maintainable, extendible into the future,
and upgradeable.”
About APA-IT
APA-IT offers full-service media and outsourcing solutions. A subsidiary of APA-Austria Press
Agency, it manages IT systems of not only the agency but also numerous publishing houses and
companies carrying out media-related tasks. APA-IT develops and tailors solutions to individual
customer needs.
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
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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