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Belgium 21-4-26 Invitation Only Physical english

From Victim to Victor: Cyber resilience is a means, providing Business Continuity the goal

In an era where every outage, audit, and cyberattack is a test of organisational survival, resilience has become the new currency of trust. While traditional perimeter security with: firewalls, intrusion detection, and scanners, remains essential, it is no longer a sufficient guarantee against modern threats that bypass these layers to penetrate your core systems. Today, enterprises require security and continuity that are built-in, not bolted-on. This CIONET roundtable focuses on the shift from reactive disaster recovery to proactive Business Continuity. Together with experts from HPE Zerto, we will explore how organisations can transform their recovery strategies into seamless continuity models.

Belgium 23-4-26 Country Members Physical & Virtual english

CIOFEST BELGIUM: Leadership in the Agentic Era

AI is no longer confined to supporting human tasks. We are entering the agentic era, where autonomous systems act on behalf of people and organisations. These agents can gather information, make decisions, negotiate terms, and even complete transactions. The implications extend well beyond technology; they touch the very foundations of business models, governance, and leadership. For CIOs and their peers, the rise of “machine customers” and autonomous partners poses new questions: Market impact: How do you compete and create value when some customers and suppliers are machines? Governance: What trust, compliance, and accountability structures are needed when AI acts independently in financial, procurement, or customer-facing processes? Leadership: How should CIOs guide their organisations in redefining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making when agents take over parts of the value chain?Business strategy: What opportunities emerge for new revenue models, platforms, and ecosystems shaped by autonomous interaction? This session shifts the focus from the mechanics of AI agents to the decisions that will shape leadership in the next decade. It is a call for CIOs to prepare for a future where relationships, markets, and strategies are no longer limited to human-to-human interactions, but also extend to human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interactions.

Belgium 29-4-26 Invitation Only Physical english

Building Future-Ready Application Ecosystems in the Age of Intelligent Automation

This CIONET workshop is a collaborative deep-dive into the practicalities of"rewiring the building" while it’s still occupied. Drawing onKyndryl’s deep heritage in mission-critical infrastructure and their latestresearch, we will dismantle the "hidden costs" of legacyenvironments. The conversation will focus on the transition from static,monolithic structures to composable architectures that allow intelligent agentsto operate seamlessly across hybrid landscapes.

April 2, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english

Taming the SaaS Sprawl: Tracking spend, ownership, and usage before it slips out of control

SaaS gave business units freedom: quick onboarding, no infrastructure, and instant results. But over time, that freedom turned into fragmentation. Each team now buys, renews, and configures its own stack. HR has one platform, finance has another, and marketing probably has ten. The invoices keep coming, usage keeps dropping, and no one is sure who’s accountable for what.

May 12, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Product-Centric IT 2.0: Blending product and project thinking

Everyone says they’ve gone product-centric. In reality, most organisations live in a hybrid world where projects, products, and platforms overlap. Teams manage releases while still chasing deadlines, and governance still thinks in milestones rather than outcomes. The shift is underway, but the mindset hasn’t caught up.

May 19, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

AI vs AI in Cybersecurity: When defenders and attackers both use AI

The game has changed, clearly. Attackers have AI, defenders have AI, and both sides are learning faster than anyone expected, or maybe the attackers are just a bit faster. What used to take hours now happens in seconds, and detection windows close before alerts even appear. It’s adaptation beyond automation, and no one gets to sit still.

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Trend Micro and Vodafone Business secure the cloud journey for infrastructure firm

Story Contracting, a leading infrastructure and civil engineering company, has partnered with Trend Micro to enhance its cybersecurity posture. Trend Micro's advanced security solutions have provided Story Contracting with the necessary tools to safeguard its operations and ensure business continuity.

Story Contracting is an award-winning Infrastructure and civil engineering company with offices across the U.K. As a provider of rail, plant, and construction solutions, the firm has built a solid reputation over the past three decades. Alex Fletcher, the IT manager at Story Contracting, is responsible for network infrastructure, desktop environments, IT security, service providers, mobile voice connectivity, and much more. The more than 500 corporate users are geographically dispersed across the country.

"We have so much flexibility now, and with Trend Micro, there’s the peace-of-mind that anything malicious coming in is being dealt with."

Alex Fletcher - IT Manager Story Contracting

Moving to the Cloud

"Like many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Story Contracting was looking to embrace a software as a service (SaaS) platform to drive user productivity, enhance IT flexibility, and boost business continuity. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, around 20% of its employees worked remotely - this has now increased to 95%, making the company’s decision to migrate to Microsoft 365 even more crucial to streamline operations.

However, Alex Fletcher and the team were well aware of the potential cybersecurity risk associated with migrating to the cloud. Although less than half (46%) of U.K. businesses suffered security breaches and/or attacks last year, the figure rose to 68% for medium-sized firms, according to a recent U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) survey. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020 found that phishing, malware, and ransomware were the top three threats.

A One-stop shop

Keen to find a seamless, hassle-free way to manage Story Contracting’s cloud migration and security, Alex Fletcher spoke to Vodafone Business. He was particularly impressed by Vodafone Business Marketplace, a web-based portal that offers customers a single point of entry to purchase licenses and manage their applications - simplifying and minimizing the supply chain. It features multiple security offerings, productivity software, back-up tools, and more.

“On the cybersecurity side we were particularly looking for web reputation and URL filtering elements, especially with some of our staff working remotely across construction sites and at home,” Fletcher explains. “This was always something we wanted to enhance, so that we could apply URL filtering directly on the machines as a client, rather than via network solutions like the firewall.”

Why Worry-Free Services

After shortlisting and trialling several security offerings, Story Contracting chose Trend Micro™ Worry-Free™ Services on Vodafone Business Marketplace for 100% SaaS-based endpoint security. The platform offers:

A cross-generational blend of advanced threat detection capabilities, including high-fidelity machine learning, behavioural analysis, file and web reputation, URL filtering, app control, DLP, and much more
Simple deployment and ongoing management via a single console
Maximum protection for remote workers thanks to a cloud model
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) for improved threat visibility
Backed by real-time threat intelligence that protects over 250 million global endpoints
Email security to block targeted attacks, phishing, business email compromise (BEC) and more
Support for Microsoft Windows (desktops and servers), Mac, iOS, and Android™ devices

Moving to the Cloud with confidence

Thanks to the unique partnership with Trend Micro and Vodafone Business, Story Contracting is able to manage both Worry-Free Services and other SaaS investments from within the Vodafone Business Marketplace portal. That adds value in reducing the number of resellers and suppliers Story Contracting must manage, freeing up IT’s time to focus on higher-value tasks. Vodafone Business offers a single point of support, while its monthly billing option is helpful for cash flow.

From a cybersecurity perspective, Story Contracting’s investment in Trend Micro has already paid dividends, offering more advanced functionality missing from previous endpoint providers. This includes machine learning and behavioural monitoring to stop sophisticated threats, and the granularity to block USB devices, network shares, and more. There’s also the web reputation and URL filtering model Fletcher was looking for - delivered via the cloud rather than as a network-based solution.

Most importantly, the addition of Trend Micro has enabled Story Contracting to move to the cloud with confidence and ditch its on-premises endpoint security server.

“From a business continuity and planning perspective and the events of the past 12 months, the businesses that have embraced SaaS and mobile working are in a much better place than the others,” says Fletcher. “We have so much flexibility now, and with Trend Micro there’s the peace-of-mind that anything malicious coming in is being dealt with.”

As for the future, there are plans to extend Worry-Free Services to Story Contracting’s mobile device fleet, and to upgrade to the product’s advanced version, which includes comprehensive email protection and Trend Micro™ Cloud App Security that integrates directly into the Microsoft 365 environment to give advanced protection for additional Microsoft products such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams. That will set up the the firm well as it looks to emerge from the pandemic in an even stronger position.

Technologies

Worry Free Services

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.