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Belgium 13-1-26 Squad Only Virtual english
Migrating legacy systems to the cloud remains one of the toughest balancing acts in IT. Every choice affects stability, cost, and trust at once, and what starts as a modernisation effort quickly turns into a negotiation between ambition and reality. Suddenly budgets rise, dependencies appear late, and timelines tighten as old architectures collide with new expectations. In the end, success depends on sequencing, ownership, and aligning business priorities with infrastructure limits, and not only on technical readiness. Making it work requires more than a plan on paper. Knowing which systems genuinely belong in the cloud, which can wait, and which should stay put shapes the entire roadmap and defines its success. Each refactoring decision sets the level of future flexibility, but it also drives cost and risk. The trade-offs between speed, sustainability, and resilience only become clear once migration begins and pressure builds. Let’s discuss how to plan migrations that stay on track, manage hidden dependencies, and handle downtime with confidence. Let’s also discuss how governance, testing, and vendor coordination keep progress visible and credible. Are you in? A closed conversation for those who turn cloud migration from a disruption into a long-term advantage.
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Belgium 20-1-26 All Members Physical english
CIOs today are being judged less as technology leaders and more as portfolio managers. Every euro is under scrutiny. Boards and CFOs demand lower run costs, higher efficiency, and clear ROI from every digital initiative. Yet, they also expect CIOs to place bets on disruptive technologies that will keep the enterprise competitive in five years. This constant tension is redefining the role. In this session, we go beyond FinOps and cost reporting to tackle the strategic financial dilemmas CIOs face.
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Belgium 22-1-26 Invitation Only Virtual english
AI coding assistants entered development teams quietly, but their impact grows by the day. What started as autocomplete now shapes architecture decisions, documentation, and testing. And when productivity gains are visible, so are new risks: security blind spots, uneven quality, and the slow erosion of shared standards. Teams move faster, but not always in the same direction. The challenge has become integration rather than adoption. And new questions have risen: how do you blend automation into established practices without losing oversight? When is human review still essential, and what should the rules of collaboration between developer and machine look like? As AI tools learn from proprietary code, where do responsibility and accountability sit? Let’s talk about how to redefine those workflows, balancing creativity with control, and protecting code quality in a hybrid human-AI environment. A closed conversation on where AI accelerates progress, where it introduces new debt, and how development culture must evolve to stay credible.
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January 13, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english
Migrating legacy systems to the cloud remains one of the toughest balancing acts in IT. Every choice affects stability, cost, and trust at once, and what starts as a modernisation effort quickly turns into a negotiation between ambition and reality. Suddenly budgets rise, dependencies appear late, and timelines tighten as old architectures collide with new expectations. In the end, success depends on sequencing, ownership, and aligning business priorities with infrastructure limits, and not only on technical readiness. Making it work requires more than a plan on paper. Knowing which systems genuinely belong in the cloud, which can wait, and which should stay put shapes the entire roadmap and defines its success. Each refactoring decision sets the level of future flexibility, but it also drives cost and risk. The trade-offs between speed, sustainability, and resilience only become clear once migration begins and pressure builds. Let’s discuss how to plan migrations that stay on track, manage hidden dependencies, and handle downtime with confidence. Let’s also discuss how governance, testing, and vendor coordination keep progress visible and credible. Are you in? A closed conversation for those who turn cloud migration from a disruption into a long-term advantage.
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January 22, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english
AI coding assistants entered development teams quietly, but their impact grows by the day. What started as autocomplete now shapes architecture decisions, documentation, and testing. And when productivity gains are visible, so are new risks: security blind spots, uneven quality, and the slow erosion of shared standards. Teams move faster, but not always in the same direction. The challenge has become integration rather than adoption. And new questions have risen: how do you blend automation into established practices without losing oversight? When is human review still essential, and what should the rules of collaboration between developer and machine look like? As AI tools learn from proprietary code, where do responsibility and accountability sit? Let’s talk about how to redefine those workflows, balancing creativity with control, and protecting code quality in a hybrid human-AI environment. A closed conversation on where AI accelerates progress, where it introduces new debt, and how development culture must evolve to stay credible.
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January 27, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english
Zero Trust sounds simple on paper: trust no one, verify everything. But once you start implementing it, the fun begins. Legacy systems, hybrid networks, and human habits don’t read the manual. The idea is solid; the execution, not so much.
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CIONET Trailblazer: AI Transformation: Bridging the Cultural Divide to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Published on: December 17, 2025 @ 9:16 AM
Professional Services Firm achieves strategic growth goals with better cloud security
Operating out of Louisiana, this professional services firm provides accounting, insurance, audit, and IT consulting to small and large clients across a broad range of industries. Security is a top priority for the firm as it manages extremely sensitive financial data and personally identifiable information (PII).

“When I joined the firm, I inherited an uneven distribution of security solutions,” says Mark Ligget, Director of IT Services. “There were multiple platforms, some overlapping. It was a challenge to manage, and untenable with a small staff. We needed to make a systemic change.”
The company recently migrated from on-premises systems to a hybrid cloud environment to enable better agility and allow the firm to innovate faster. That’s important as the company expands its business to offer IT consulting and looks to develop a managed service provider (MSP) offering. “We have an advantage because we don’t have the weight of early development to reengineer. We are in a good spot to innovate faster,” says Liggett.
With a goal to protect “any data, any device, anytime, anywhere,” Liggett searched for a solution that would bolster IT security and ensure compliance with strict and frequently evolving regulations.
WHY TREND
Liggett first considered whether the firm could stick with its three incumbent security solution providers. “That didn’t work because different things were protected. We needed a single security platform that could work in the cloud as well as on servers and endpoints,” Liggett explains.
“Trend Micro covers all the major requirements, including PCI compliance and cloud-based solutions. We really liked the SaaS offerings, which makes deployment and management easy.”
With better visibility I can see what’s out there. BEC, ransomware, and email protection all work extremely well. Cloud App Security pays for itself every time I send a report to management.
Mark Liggett - Director of IT Services, Professional Services Firm
SOLUTION
The firm purchased Trend Micro Worry-Free Services endpoint protection to block ransomware and other targeted attacks. “Worry-Free Services provides the cloud-based endpoint protection I’m looking for,” Liggett notes.
The firm also uses Trend Micro Cloud App Security advanced threat and data protection for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Gmail™, and cloud file-sharing services to extend protection beyond the perimeter. That’s particularly important in the wake of unprecedented events like COVID-19.
“Trend Micro Cloud App Security enables our remote workers to access their files securely through cloud applications like OneDrive and provides the IT team with greater confidence that key data is safe, especially during tax filing season. Had COVID-19 occurred before we started working with Trend Micro, I would’ve insisted everyone work via a VPN because I couldn’t guarantee security or compliance,” says Liggett.
“The rollout was simple and non-interruptive for users. Issues are quickly resolved, and I have confidence that my users are protected. I have everything I need to protect them without putting my hands on their keyboards.”
With Trend Micro, we’ve reduced the time spent dealing with phishing, spam and malicious emails by 90%, going from 10 hours to about an hour a week.
Mark Liggett Director of IT Services, - Professional Services Firm
RESULTS
Better security from the cloud has been a key to helping the firm achieve its strategic growth goals of 5% to 10% per year. With Trend Micro blocking ransomware, targeted attacks, and ensuring that endpoints, inboxes, and client data are fully protected, the firm is focusing on growing the business and expanding its offerings.
“It’s hard to fight what you can’t see. Now, with better visibility I can see what’s out there. Business email compromise (BEC), ransomware, and email protection all work extremely well. Cloud App Security pays for itself every time I send a report to management.”
The most recent monthly report Liggett pulled included scans of over 175,000 emails. Those emails included 20 attempts to compromise business emails, 60 phishing attempts, and multiple malicious files. All of these have escaped Microsoft 365 basic security but none made it past Trend Micro’s detection and protection capabilities.
“Our response time for an end user that’s having issues is reduced to minutes, not hours. We don’t have to hunt around, do scans, or do any heavy lifting to figure out what’s going on. With Trend Micro, we’ve reduced the time spent dealing with phishing, spam and malicious emails by 90%, going from 10 hours to about an hour a week.” says Liggett.
WHAT'S NEXT
“COVID-19 has been a good lesson for us, and we’re fortunate that all our users have laptops and can work from home,” Liggett says. “I’m always looking to improve security coverage and visibility in the field, so Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ will be our next strategic investment to secure our hybrid cloud workloads.”
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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?
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The 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.
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Découvrez 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 !
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CIONET 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.
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