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Belgium 01-10-2026 Squad Only Virtual english

Letting Teams Build Safely with Low-Code, No-Code, and AI Tools. ; How to enable business-led development while keeping security, architecture, and support under control.

Low-code, no-code, and AI tools are giving business teams more ability to build solutions themselves. The challenge is setting the right boundaries before fast local solutions become important operational assets. Three pressure points need attention. - Boundaries must be clear: teams need to know what they can build alone and what requires IT, security, or architecture review. - Supportability matters when a quick solution becomes business-critical. - Risk control remains necessary around data access, compliance, security, process dependency, and maintenance. The working question is simple: how do we enable business-led development while keeping security, ownership, and support under control? If you are trying to enable this safely, let’s compare approaches with others facing the same balance.

Belgium 06-10-2026 All Members Physical english

The Token Trap: Reclaiming Control of Enterprise AI

As enterprise AI transitions from experimental Proofs of Concept (POCs) into real implementations, digital leaders are encountering a shared challenge: consumption-based public cloud token billing models do not fit neatly into traditional IT budgeting. Daily token consumption can rise unexpectedly, pushing expenses through the roof while arbitrary caps quickly kill momentum for innovation. For many CIOs, this raises an open strategic question: How do we keep costs under control while further stimulating innovation? During this interactive CIONET roundtable, we will explore among peers how to navigate AI tokenomics. Rather than treating public cloud LLMs as the default path, we will investigate how different execution environments, ranging from hybrid cloud setups and targeted on-premise models to specialised edge hardware, can help balance cost with performance. This session is intentionally designed as an open peer-to-peer exchange; a space to compare notes, challenge current ways of working and architectural setups, and discuss practical approaches to building predictable, scalable AI models.

Belgium 08-10-2026 All Members Physical english

The Permanent (R)evolution

Every large organisation has been through a major transformation, and most through several. The word transformation is misleading because it suggests a beginning and an end. But organisations that do well are the ones that have given up on the idea of arriving and realise that constant change has become the new norm, and missing a single cycle leaves you permanently behind. This evening, two leaders will share how they think about this, coming from opposite directions. John Porter led Telenet through a sustained period of reinvention spanning the pandemic, a full reorganisation into tribes, M&A, and a shift to a performance driven culture. Along the way, the IT department was dissolved and technology was embedded inside autonomous tribes that run as small businesses. There is no CIO at Telenet. It is Telenet Group’s purpose to become a digital-first, customer-centric organisation. To deliver on this ambition, it has embarked on a transformation journey built on three pillars: (i) the implementation of a scaled-agile operating model (organisation), (ii) the acceleration of digitisation and automation underpinned by optimised IT systems, platforms, and strategic technology partnerships (digitisation), and (iii) a performance leadership culture focused on accountability, ownership, and a change mindset (culture). Kris Vervaet, on the other hand, has just become CIO at KBC, the bank whose mobile app has been ranked best in the world three times and whose AI assistant Kate now handles 70% of customer queries on its own. But Kris is no ordinary CIO: he ran DPG Media Belgium as CEO, and KBC went looking for someone who has led transformation rather than someone who manages technology. So while one organisation got rid of the CIO role, the other reinvented it, and both are thriving. The conversation will range across organisational and IT redesign, the rise of digital-first customer experience, the impact of AI on how every business is run, and the harder questions of culture, talent and leadership. The question for every leader in the room is what that tells you about your own role, your own operating model, and the pace at which you are prepared to keep evolving.

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Trend Micro powers NHS cloud pioneer SLAM with multilayered security

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) has significantly improved its security posture with Trend Micro. Trend Micro’s Deep Security enables SLAM to effectively protect its infrastructure from threats such as WannaCry. This has not only improved security, but also accelerated cloud adoption and led to cost savings.

OVERVIEW

The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) is a London-based NHS trust specializing in mental health. It consists of four campus sites and over 70 community sites, with more than 5,000 employees. Stuart MacLellan is the head of operations for digital service at SLAM, where his team manages thousands of endpoints leveraging private and public cloud infrastructures.

CHALLENGES

Prior to choosing Trend Micro, MacLellan and his team were constantly challenged by high volumes of malware and viruses on the network, which led to system outages on occasion and ultimately a poor customer experience. In mission-critical environments like hospitals, this kind of impact is unsustainable in the delivery of critical frontline services.

At the same time, SLAM was evolving its infrastructure by adopting cloud services. It was the first NHS trust to migrate to Microsoft® Office 365® and moved to Microsoft® Azure® for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on the first day of its launch in the UK. MacLellan recognized the need for a cloud-ready product suite to provide unified protection against zero-day and emerging threats across physical and hybrid cloud environments. He also required comprehensive threat detection at the network layer, which could be viewed holistic.

WHY TREND

For six years, SLAM has relied on Trend Micro to protect its 5,000 employees and clients using Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Suites, a multi-layered product approach to security that includes OfficeScan™ endpoint solution and InterScan™ Web Security Virtual Appliance. That superior performance and ability to root out threats gave MacLellan the confidence he needed to deepen the partnership with Trend Micro to include enhanced cloud and network security.

SLAM enhanced its protection with Trend Micro™ Deep Security™, Deep Discovery™ and Cloud App Security to secure their hybrid cloud data center, network, and cloud application layer.

"We’re a small team and run security as a linear layer across all our departments, so ease-of-use was essential. With Deep Security you get a holistic view from endpoint to servers and from cloud to network inspection, which was exactly what we needed."

Stuart MacLellan - Head of Operations for Digital Service, SLAM

SOLUTION

Deep Security is Trend Micro’s flagship data center security platform, offering unparalleled protection for physical and hybrid cloud environments, all from a single console. Deep Security is optimized for many of the most popular cloud platforms on the market, including Microsoft Azure.

It offered SLAM:

An “as-a-service” delivery model with consumption-based billing available through the AWS Marketplace
Host-based intrusion prevention system (IPS) that scales with your cloud to offer continuous protection
Automatic policy creation and management to ensure workloads are never left unprotected
Full integration with the Azure Security Center to monitor workloads and provide security alerts through the Azure portal
Automated virtual patching
The ability to apply layered security controls such as integrity monitoring, intrusion prevention, content filtering, and behavioral analysis, to the right place at the right time
Network level (intrusion detection system/IPS) and file integrity monitoring (FIM) to detect and prevent threats
Accelerated compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and more, thanks to ongoing audit reports and maximum protection

Deep Discovery is Trend Micro’s award-winning advanced threat detection tool. Powered by XGen™ security, it’s designed to monitor all ports and over 105 different network protocols. This allows you to discover advanced threats and targeted attacks moving in and out of the network and laterally across it.

Cloud App Security offers comprehensive protection in Office 365 environments, using sandbox analysis to spot and block ransomware, business email compromise (BEC), and other advanced threats. Over the past two years it has stopped over six million threats not spotted by Microsoft.

RESULTS

SLAM has already seen a range of benefits resulting from its decision to deepen its investment with Trend Micro. MacLellan was particularly impressed by the ability of Deep Security to offer management capabilities from a single pane of glass.

“We’re a small team and run security as a linear layer across all our departments, so ease-of-use was essential. With Deep Security you get a holistic view from endpoint to servers and from cloud to network inspection, which was exactly what we needed,” MacLellan explains. “Although we added more protection to our organization through the various suites, the centralized pane of glass Trend Micro offers hasn’t added any management overheads. It’s more efficient than having four different vendors in place.”

What’s more, Deep Security kept the organization safe from WannaCry while SLAM’s counterparts in the wider NHS were less fortunate. An estimated 19,000 operations and appointments were cancelled as a result of the WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017.

“We had protection through virtual patching and got assurance through talking to Trend Micro support. It was a very controlled and managed experience for SLAM,” says MacLellan.

That protection has been matched by Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Inspector and its ability to hunt down threats at the network layer, as well as Cloud App Security, which blocks malware targeting SLAM’s Office 365 platform.

Most importantly, having an effective, optimized layer of security in place has helped SLAM accelerate its adoption of cloud services to become a more agile and efficient organization. This has generated significant cost savings through improved capacity management, whilst driving a shift from being “a reactive IT department to a proactive, consultative department that is working to make the business better.”

"Although we added more protection to our organization through the various suites, the centralized pane of glass Trend Micro offers hasn’t added any management overheads. It’s more efficient than having four different vendors in place."

Stuart MacLellan - Head of Operations for Digital Service, SLAM

WHAT'S NEXT

With Trend Micro providing peace of mind to the IT team, they now have the time to look at more strategic plans, which will further help to reduce cyber risk. Improving incident response is high on the list, especially in light of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), says MacLellan.

Technologies

Trend Micro Cloud App Security™ Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ Trend Micro™Deep Discovery™

CIONET Business Circles

Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

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.