Belgium 25-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english
As AI shapes our future, the time is now to address and correct its inherent biases. Join leading female voices in tech as we explore how to undo past mistakes, champion neutrality, and feed AI systems with inclusive, unbiased data. This conference is a call to action for female leaders in AI and tech to ensure the next generation of intelligent systems reflects fairness, diversity, and equity. Together, let’s set things right and redefine the future of AI.
Read MoreBelgium 25-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english
On 25th September, during the Red Hat Summit: Connect 2025 in Brussels, CIONET is hosting an exclusive, invitation-only round table for leading CIOs, CTOs, and digital leaders. While the Summit offers a broad programme, this CIONET session is a separate, distinct event, conducted in its own dedicated room with private catering, ensuring a focused and confidential peer-to-peer discussion. This round table will delve into why certain cloud-native techniques offer undeniable benefits, irrespective of where your applications are deployed, be it on-premise, in a hyperscale cloud, or a hybrid environment. Even outside public clouds, these modern, modular architectures consistently deliver increased agility, enhanced scalability, and quicker time-to-market. The real power behind these advantages lies in automation. When done properly, automation significantly boosts team efficiency, improves system quality, and drastically cuts risks from slow systems or downtime. However, achieving truly effective automation comes with its own set of challenges, which we'll address head-on. Key Discussion Points Include: "No-Regret" Cloud-Native Pillars: We'll try to pinpoint essential techniques every organisation should adopt, such as microservices architecture, containerisation (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), API-first design, stateless application design, and immutable infrastructure. Why are these crucial for modern applications, no matter the deployment location? Strategic Vendor Lock-in: How to judiciously manage vendor lock-in. For new innovations and applications with a relatively short life expectancy, leveraging the latest unique features of a hyperscale cloud might be beneficial. For long-lived applications (expected to be live for decades), the focus might shift to limiting exposure by utilising generally available technologies. Automation Anywhere: How can organisations effectively implement automation strategies to unlock the full potential of cloud-native initiatives across diverse infrastructures? What are the biggest hurdles, and how are leaders overcoming them? This CIONET round table offers a unique and intimate setting for digital leaders to gain critical insights, exchange perspectives, and shape the strategic path towards application modernisation that truly offers no regrets.
Read MoreBelgium 30-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english
Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.
Read MoreSeptember 30, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.
Read MoreOctober 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Architecture doesn’t happen in diagrams. It happens in minds, seasoned, curious, sharp minds that understand how the pieces fit. But who’s shaping these minds? Who’s growing the next generation of digital architects? If you’re responsible for complex systems, and for the people designing them, this session is for you.
Read MoreOctober 14, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english
Agile delivery often collides with inflexible infrastructures. One team wants to release weekly. Another is waiting six months for a new test environment. Sounds familiar? If your infra team is tired of being the bottleneck, and your devs are tired of waiting, this session opens a path forward.
Read MoreAgile Defense simplifies security compliance with automation
Agile Defense partnered with Red Hat to create DuroSuite, a STIG compliance tool for U.S. government (DoD). Built on Red Hat Ansible, DuroSuite automates security and saves IT time. Red Hat's expertise helped DuroSuite get DoD approval and gain market traction. As Agile Defense expands, Red Hat's scalable platform will support their growth.
Preventing cybercriminals from gaining unauthorized access to government systems and infrastructure has never been more pertinent. Many breaches that occur are the result of configuration errors. For the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and federal agencies, avoiding threats requires them to adhere to strict information, security, configuration, and compliance standards set out in the Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).
Regular audits check for misconfigurations and other errors, yet these audits are repetitive, resource-intensive, and costly. Agencies can spend months preparing for an audit. “Our customers’ production tasks would grind to a halt ahead of an inspection while they get all their documentation in line,” said Shawn Draper, Solutions Engineer at Agile Defense. “It was a very time-consuming, manual process.” Moreover, this reactive, manual approach was leaving customers open to known vulnerabilities between checks.
Red Hat Ready partner, Agile Defense, recognized this common challenge with its U.S. Government customers. “Misconfigurations and audits are a very pervasive pain point for most of the government customers we’ve spoken to,” said Sara FitzGerald, PhD, Technical Writer at Agile Defense. A leading IT services business, which prides itself on innovation through information technology, began developing a solution. The resulting STIG automation solution performs ad hoc systems audits, optionally remediates misconfigurations, and reports on the current state of devices.
Known as Agile Defense’s DuroSuite, the STIG automation solution uses Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform because of its flexible and scalable automation capabilities. “We chose Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to tackle this problem because it can communicate with everything,” said Draper. “Network devices, Windows machines, databases, web servers…Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform can talk to them all.”
Additionally, Red Hat recently collaborated with DISA on a STIG for Red Hat Enterprise Linux® and understands the importance of creating standards for every device, OS, and software version.
DuroSuite uses Ansible Automation Platform configuration management automation capabilities to audit for open vulnerabilities. “Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform connects to devices and executes commands specified in an Ansible Playbook,” said Draper. Having identified misconfigurations automatically, DuroSuite can also automatically remediate them by following commands in a customized Ansible Playbook.
Agile Defense has built a variety of playbooks, each designed to test a different type of device. These include playbooks for Red Hat platforms, Windows devices, VMware vSphere hypervisors, Cisco routers and switches, and firewalls. Its graphical user interface (GUI) makes it easy to use, displaying audit reports, remediation results, artifacts, and other key data at the click of a button to help customers maintain compliance. DuroSuite also contains an application programming interface (API) for customers who want to access the data but not from the GUI.
“Fixing the deficiencies is only part of the battle ahead of audits,” said Draper. “DuroSuite helps with all of the paperwork too, by automatically producing all the documentation needed.” Specifically, DuroSuite uses Ansible Automation Platform to write an XML check file (viewable in DISA’s STIG Viewer) for every device on the network and vulnerability identified to present to the auditor. These artifacts produced by DuroSuite can show current-state information and demonstrate that particular security configurations have been implemented. Ansible Automation Platform also allows customers to extend the capabilities of DuroSuite to manage workflows and inventory, schedule audits, and introduce role-based access control.
Red Hat has supported Agile Defense throughout this project. The partners’ technical teams speak at least every other week, and a named, technical, single point of contact provides support whenever the Agile Defense technical team needs it. “Our Red Hat technical contact has been a fantastic source of information,” said Draper. “He either knows or knows how to find all of the minor details you need when you’re developing this type of solution.” The Red Hat technical contact may also call upon Red Hat subject matter experts to meet with Agile Defense’s engineers to discuss customizations, deployments, scaling, enhancements, and security capabilities.
Online training through the Red Hat Online Partner Enablement Network (OPEN) helped Agile Defense increase productivity. “The Red Hat training was a great foundation for learning Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and understanding how it functions and how the language works,” said Draper. “It was very thorough, very helpful, taking you from setting up Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform through to building playbooks.” The training included self-paced online modules, slides, videos, and a lab component. The lab environment was set up for attendees in the Red Hat Product Demo System (RHPDS), the same system Red Hat uses internally to connect to and practice using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Agile Defense also meets every other week with a Red Hat Solution Architect from Red Hat Consulting. During these meetings, the dedicated Red Hat expert provides guidance on moving more processes to Ansible Automation Platform. “This support is instrumental in our partnership,” said Victoria Trunnell, Solutions Lead at Agile Defense. “If we have any questions, we can reach out at any time, and we hear back; we don’t have to wait until this meeting.”
The Red Hat team also helped Agile Defense achieve a DoD Authority to Operate (ATO) for DuroSuite in September 2023, opening the door to additional opportunities with government entities. Red Hat is also helping to promote DuroSuite, mentioning it to Red Hat customers at opportune moments.
The proactive monitoring of an agency’s security posture that DuroSuite provides is critical to maintaining readiness in the face of cyber threats. Historically, this monitoring has been resourceintensive and required additional software on endpoint devices. By using Ansible Automation Platform to scan for open vulnerabilities, Agile Defense’s DuroSuite saves Agile Defense’s government customers a considerable amount of time.
“DuroSuite saved one of our customers around 98% in terms of person-hours,” said FitzGerald. “They no longer need to manually click boxes and enter information in an XML tool for every device on their network.”
DuroSuite also ensures consistency across devices. “One of the great things about automation is that it does the same thing every time,” said Draper.
In combination with support from the technical contact, the Red Hat OPEN training helped Agile Defense bring DuroSuite to market faster. “I went through the Red Hat training in about a week, and it probably saved me three or four months of reading documentation and struggling to get started with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform,” said Draper. “The training was like a springboard that allowed us to quickly make a product that works. And just having our Red Hat contact available to act as a sounding board and help us work through the challenges we encountered with using the tool was invaluable.”
Red Hat played an instrumental role in helping Agile Defense achieve the DuroSuite ATO, which has opened many new doors. Achieving an ATO is a significant step for Agile Defense because DoD does not allow its customers to use any tools that don’t have it—meaning DoD customers would not be interested in talking with Agile Defense about DuroSuite.
To achieve the ATO, Agile Defense had to prove DuroSuite’s compliance with STIGs at three levels: the application itself, its database, and its Red Hat foundation. “Building our solution on Red Hat Automation Platform was a huge help because it has already been vetted and has an ATO,” said Trunnell.
Agile Defense’s key contract vehicles for pursuing opportunities, combined with Red Hat’s innovative products and emerging technologies form transformational success. Victoria Trunnell - Solutions Lead, Agile Defense
Automation has become critical in enabling secure mission IT. The automation of security compliance enables risk management while reducing time to mission. Agile Defense’s security compliance tool, DuroSuite, developed with Red Hat products and technical guidance, is a critical value-add tool ensuring our nation’s most critical networks are compliant with DISA’s high cybersecurity standards. Rick Wagner - Agile Defense CEO
With positive feedback from customers on DuroSuite and a lot of excitement from potential customers, Agile Defense is expanding its catalog of audited devices. “We’re always developing new Ansible Playbooks to audit and remediate the next big thing,” said Draper.
Agile Defense is even looking into how it can leverage additional Ansible Automation Platform features, specifically its built-in scalability, as it investigates offering an enterprise version of DuroSuite. The company is also exploring making DuroSuite available on the Red Hat Marketplace.
The partners will continue working closely together not only at a technical level but also at a business level, following potential leads and new opportunities. “We appreciate the support and the dedication that the Red Hat account teams have provided our company,” said Trunnell. “Our partnership with Red Hat is perfect. Agile Defense’s key contract vehicles for pursuing opportunities, combined with Red Hat’s innovative products and emerging technologies form transformational success.”
Ansible Automation Platform makes Agile Defense more competitive. “Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a very powerful configuration tool,” concluded FitzGerald. “It gives us an edge in an emerging market.”
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Digital Transformation is redefining the future of health care and health delivery. All stakeholders are convinced that these innovations will create value for patients, healthcare practitioners, hospitals, and governments along the patient pathway. The benefits are starting from prevention and awareness to diagnosis, treatment, short- and long-term follow-up, and ultimately survival. But how do you make sure that your working towards an architecturally sound, secure and interoperable health IT ecosystem for your hospital and avoid implementing a hodgepodge of spot solutions? How does your IT department work together with the other stakeholders, such as the doctors and other healthcare practitioners, Life Sciences companies, Tech companies, regulators and your internal governance and administrative bodies?
Read MoreThe Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.
Read MoreDécouvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !
Read MoreCIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.
Read MoreWould you like to know more about CIONET Belgium, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!
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