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Belgium 10-3-26 All Members Physical english

The Composable Enterprise: Engineered with AI

From modular business design to AI-driven pipelines, architectures, and operationsA composable enterprise is built on modular processes, API-driven ecosystems, low-code platforms, and cloud-native services. It promises speed and adaptability by allowing organisations to reconfigure their capabilities as conditions change. However, modular design alone does not guarantee resilience; the way these systems are engineered and operated is just as important.This is where AI is beginning to make a difference. Beyond generating snippets of code, AI is already influencing how entire systems are developed and run: accelerating CI/CD pipelines, improving test coverage, optimising Infrastructure-as-Code, sharpening observability, and even shaping architectural decisions. These changes directly affect how quickly new business components can be deployed, connected, and retired.In this session, we will examine how CIOs can bring these two movements together:Composable design is the framework for flexibility and modularity.AI-augmented engineering is the force that delivers the speed, quality, and intelligence needed to sustain it.The pitfalls of treating them in isolation: composability that collapses under slow engineering cycles, or AI that only adds complexity without a modular structure.The discussion goes beyond concepts to practical implications: how to architect organisations that can be recomposed at speed, without losing control or reliability. The outcome is an enterprise that is not only modular in design but also engineered to adapt continuously under real-world conditions.

Belgium 12-3-26 Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

Tomato! Tomato! Tomato! Get your tomato now! Every vendor sells security. And every company depends on vendors, partners, and suppliers. The more digital the business becomes, the longer that list grows, and so does the attack surface. One weak link, and there is always one, or one missed update, and trust collapses faster than any firewall can react. What used to be a procurement checklist has become a full-time discipline. Questionnaires, audits, and endless documentation prove that everyone’s “compliant,” yet incidents keep happening. So it’s clear: the issue isn’t lack of policy, or maybe a bit, but mostly lack of visibility. Beyond a certain point, even the most secure organisation is only as safe as its least prepared partner (or an employee who hadn’t had their morning coffee). So how far can you trust your vendors? How do you check what you can’t control? And when does assurance become theatre instead of protection? Does it come at a different cost? Let’s exchange what works and what fails in third-party risk management: live monitoring, shared responsibility models, contractual levers, and the reality of building trust in a chain you don’t own. A closed conversation for those redefining what partnership means when risk is shared but accountability isn’t.

Belgium 19-3-26 Country Members Physical french

Vendor Detox: La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ?

Moins de Partenaires : La consolidation vaut-elle le risque ? Le problème est la prolifération des fournisseurs : trop d'outils causant de la complexité, une taxe d'intégration paralysante et de la redondance. La Taxe d'Intégration est le coût caché (en temps, en échecs et en ressources) d'essayer de faire fonctionner ensemble des systèmes disparates. Cet échange se concentre sur des stratégies éprouvées pour simplifier de manière agressive le parc technologique, consolider les fournisseurs et élever certains fournisseurs clés au rang de partenaires stratégiques.

March 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

The Third-Party Risk Reckoning: How far can you trust your vendors?

March 24, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Killing Zombie Projects: Knowing when to stop, restart, or quietly let go

Every organisation has them, projects that keep running long after their purpose has faded. No one remembers who asked for them, but shutting them down feels riskier than keeping them alive. And eventually, people stay assigned, budgets stay allocated, and energy drains into work that no longer matters. Inertia at its finest.

March 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Measuring Value in AI Initiatives: Defining ROI, accountability, and measurable outcomes in complex environments

AI projects continue to multiply, but proving their value remains difficult. Most organisations can track activity, not impact. Dashboards count pilots and models, yet few translate to measurable business outcomes. The result is familiar: success stories without clarity on what they actually delivered.

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DeKalb County Schools District proactively protects environment with the Trend Vision One™ platform

DeKalb County Schools Partners with Trend Micro to safeguard its network and data. By leveraging Trend Vision One, the district is ensuring the security of students, staff, and sensitive information.

OVERVIEW

With 13 schools and nearly 9,000 students, DeKalb Country Schools District prides itself on being a hub for educational excellence—and a pillar of its community. Local resident, Jimmy Benefield, who took over the role of technology coordinator in 2020, sees a personal side to this mission. “Being entrusted with servicing and maintaining all of our campuses, the network, and the computer infrastructure here with the school system, it’s like I’m able to give back to the community I grew up in,” says Benefield. He relies on Trend Vision One™ to keep the district’s students, teachers, administration, and staff secure from cyber threats.

Seeing the complete picture — from servers, cloud, email, network to endpoints — is crucial to maintaining a healthy network. Having access to all of this information in one portal really saves time.

Jimmy Benefield - Technology Coordinator, DeKalb County Schools District

CHALLENGES

“Our biggest goal is to protect our environment from potential risks, ensuring our end users are safe and our network, endpoints, cloud, and email are secure,” says Benefield. “With the rise of phishing, ransomware, and other attacks increasingly becoming more disruptive for school districts across the country, keeping DeKalb County Schools is our priority with my five‑person team.”

“Protecting our students’ access to information online and addressing potential risks, such as unsecured apps, is a constant concern,” says Benefield. “Our team must also synchronize their efforts across multiple departments and schools, wearing many hats to meet diverse needs—from data integration to network infrastructure for new construction projects.”

WHY TREND

Faced with a need to increase protection on the network when he came on board in 2020, Benefield chose Trend to secure the district’s servers. “When DeKalb County Schools District experienced a ransomware attack on our computers seven months after our purchase, our Trend deployment was the game-changer in keeping the servers protected. The Trend team was with us every step of the way during the rebuild and recovery,” says Benefield.

We realized purchasing more security products was essential to our ransomware recovery process. The level of support we received from Trend during our recovery made it the obvious first choice.

Jimmy Benefield - Technology Coordinator, DeKalb County Schools District

SOLUTION

“We added Trend Vision One™ – XDR for Endpoints and Workloads after the incident to give us visibility over our network. The addition of XDR for Endpoints and Workloads helped us to discover machines that were still infected, which saved us considerable time getting those devices sent back to our district office so we could clean, protect, and return them to users.”

The district now enjoys the complete security of Trend Vision One. “Seeing the complete picture with Trend Vision One—from servers, cloud, and network to endpoints and email—is crucial to maintaining a healthy network. Having full visibility and access to all of this information in one portal really saves time,” says Benefield.

RESULTS

DeKalb County Schools District has experienced a transformation since beginning its partnership with Trend. “Trend Vision One has streamlined monitoring and provided a single interface to manage our district’s servers, cloud, email, network, and endpoints,” says Benefield. “We’ve saved valuable time, allowing my small team to focus on critical tasks, ensuring systems are up and running seamlessly.”

Benefield especially praises the Trend network security solutions. “With Trend Vision One™ – TippingPoint™, the geo block feature allows us to see on the dashboard how many attacks we are blocking hourly from other countries, and it is continuously scanning for weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We’re lucky to have TippingPoint up and running to manage those threats,” he says.

“The Trend Vision One™ – XDR for Email notifications have also become a critical feature, alerting our team to security risks and prompting rapid responses and investigations. With enhanced visibility into the network and ongoing reporting, we have successfully overseen the elimination of older device operating systems and can help my team to better prioritize and keep operations running smoothly,” says Benefield.

WHAT'S NEXT

DeKalb County Schools District is proactively bolstering security measures by focusing on training and awareness. “I’d like to make our staff and students more knowledgeable about potential attacks and ways to avoid them—not just to secure our network but to provide them with insight to reduce the chances of being taken advantage of at home,” says Benefield.

“I’m excited to use Trend Vision One to run phishing campaigns that aid in staff training,” says Benefield. As the digital landscape evolves, with the support of Trend, Benefield and his team are set to address these security concerns head‑on, fostering a safer digital environment. “Peace of mind and sleeping soundly is what I am now able to do with Trend Vison One in place. The Trend security solutions and team cover me and life is more peaceful.”

Business benefits:

Unified security platform empowers the IT team to focus on critical tasks with a single interface to manage infrastructure
Enables proactive threat mitigation and prompt responses to security risks
Bolsters the school district’s response to ransomware, phishing, and other critical risks to students and staff

Technologies

Apex One™ Cloud One – Workload Security Trend Micro Cloud App Security™ Trend Micro TippingPoint Trend Micro™Deep Discovery™ Trend Vision One™ cloud security platform Vision One™ with Managed XDR

Partners

CIONET Business Circles

Healthcare Circle

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?

Telenet Business Leadership Circle

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.

Les Rencontres

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 !

Female Leadership Circle

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.