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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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Upcoming Events

 
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Belgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english

20 Years CIONET - CIONET Belgium: Summer Festival

A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership.Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.This is more than a celebration—it’s an opportunity to reconnect, reflect, and recharge with your fellow digital leaders. Don't miss this exclusive experience packed with inspiring talks, networking opportunities, and special recognitions that highlight the best of CIONET’s history and future.Let’s celebrate the past, present, and future of the digital community you helped build.

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Belgium 28-8-25 Country Members Physical english

Summer Festival - Advisory Board

A special celebration marking 20 years of CIONET—two decades of empowering digital leaders and driving innovation in the technology landscape. This exclusive event will bring together our members to reflect on the incredible journey we've shared and look ahead to the future of digital leadership. Featuring keynote presentations from visionary CIOs, industry pioneers, and founding members, we’ll explore how far we’ve come and what lies ahead in the ever-evolving world of technology. Together, we will honour the contributions of our members who have shaped CIONET’s legacy while offering insights into how the community will continue to lead in the years to come.

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Belgium 2-9-25 All TRIBERS Virtual english

What Does It Cost to Host an App? ; A practical guide to calculating hosting costs across infra, licenses, and operations

You’ve been asked a simple question: “What does it cost to host this application?” But the answer is anything but simple. The platform sits across multiple data centres. The app spans a few VMs, shares a backup system, uses licensed monitoring, and touches five different teams. Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete. And yet, you still need to provide a number, clear, explainable, and grounded in reality.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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August 5, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

AI Act – praktyka stosowania na rynku polskim

AI Act – dyrektywa unijna regulująca wiele zasad wykorzystania AI w modelach biznesowych- już obowiązuje na polskim rynki. Ciekawe są prawdziwe i realne przypadki jej stosowania. Spójrzmy na temat od strony regulacyjnej, czyli prawnej. Ale zobaczmy praktykę aktywnej w temacie kancelarii prawnej. Zaprosiliśmy mecenaskę Aleksandrę Maciejewicz z kancelarii Lawmore, która od dłuższego czasu jest niezwykle aktywna i praktykuje w tym temacie. Poznamy podstawę prawną, praktyczne case’y i opis sytuacji oczami prawdziwego praktyka.

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August 6, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

DORA: wszystko, co chcielibyście wiedzieć, a baliście się zapytać

Michał Kulesza, adwokat, partner w departamencie technologicznym kancelarii Rymarz Zdort Maruta i szef zespołu regulacji ICT, przeprowadzi nas przez kluczowe wątki rozporządzenia i zmierzy się z pytaniami zgłoszonymi przez uczestników. Omówimy zarówno krytyczne aspekty na początku wdrożeń, jak i dostrajanie zmian na poziomie organizacyjnym i strategicznym. Masz konkretny temat, który warto poruszyć? Zgłoś go w trakcie rejestracji. Zamiast czytać między wierszami DORA – porozmawiajmy o tym wprost.

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August 7, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

Automated Systems Testing

Duże tempo developmentu i dokonywanych zmian wymaga nowej klasy testowania. Jakość systemów obserwowana na produkcji będzie pochodną skuteczności tego procesu. Duże nadzieje wiążemy z platformami wspierającymi testowanie i opartymi na AI. Sesja ta pokaże, gdzie jesteśmy w poszukiwaniu takich rozwiązań i gdzie ewaluuje myślenie szefów testów i ich rozwiązania organizacyjne.

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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UZ Brussel University gains greater visibility and protects health data and cloud applications

Gains greater visibility and protects health data and cloud applications

OVERVIEW

UZ Brussel University Hospital, located on the Jette campus, is one of the most important hospitals in Belgium with 721 beds. It was founded by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and has several polyclinics across the outskirts of Brussels. These are also supported for various services, including IT, from UZ Brussel.

Thanks to nearly 4,000 permanent employees, UZ Brussel provides the best possible care to patients. Research and training are also important to UZ Brussel. Every year, approximately 800 students intern at the hospital.

 

"Due to COVID-19 hospitals were more targeted by hackers. Trend Micro then spontaneously came and asked if they could help."

Robin Demesmaeker, - Manager of ICT Infrastructure, UZ Brussel

 

 

CHALLENGES

IT plays a critical role in the healthcare industry. With several polyclinics supported by UZ Brussel’s IT, ensuring top-notch security and managing operations is no easy task. “As the supporting IT service for infrastructure and operations, we are responsible for the proper functioning of networking, system management, database management and cybersecurity,” explains Robin Demesmaeker, Manager of ICT Infrastructure at UZ Brussel. “In addition, there is also a DevOps team that has developed its own Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system and shares it in partnership with other hospitals, whether or not hosted in UZ Brussel’s data center.”

One of the major trends in healthcare is the far-reaching digital transformation. UZ Brussel also sees a number of major challenges in the coming years. For example, there is the increasing demand for automation.

“Within nursing, we are at the tipping point to relieve people from administration as much as possible. Devices like blood pressure monitors could automatically link the values to the EPR. At present, nurses still have to add them manually,” says Demesmaeker.

He expects that the arrival of 5G networks will also lead to an evolution in the monitoring of patients at home (for example, of diabetics, cardio data or sleep tests). Other trends that create challenges are cloud services and the exponential growth of internet of things (IoT) sensors in the medical world. The tension between userfriendliness and the strictness of the policy is also a challenge for UZ Brussel. All of which also have implications for IT security and privacy.

“Central to this for me is the protection of the identity of the healthcare provider,” clarifies Demesmaeker. “Because of their position, they can access certain sensitive data and perform specific actions. So if their identity is not well protected, any rogue person can misuse this data. Especially if you use more cloud services and therefore no longer keep everything within the walls of the hospital, this becomes even more crucial. Like knowing where and how the identity is being used, which you then also have to log.”

 

"We used to see little or no attempts or lateral movements. Now we can follow them perfectly through the Deep Discovery Inspector."

Robin Demesmaeker, - Manager of ICT Infrastructure, UZ Brussel

 
 

WHY TREND

In addition to these challenges, an outdated endpoint security solution from McAfee was the concrete reason for strengthening the security. In a comparative test of four solutions, Trend Micro Apex One™ emerged as the best.

“It was purely definition-based and we wanted a next-gen solution. We had defined four criteria: it had to be behavior-based, easy to manage because our time and focus is on supporting healthcare, the solution had to be able to handle virtualization, and finally, we carried out a benchmarking exercise to determine how the security solution reacts to our own medical software,” says Demesmaeker.

The spread of COVID-19 caused a lot of pressure internally and on the IT department— they needed a solution that deployed and scaled quickly.

“The rapid scaling of intensive care was a priority for us. In addition, solutions were quickly sought to enable patients, who were no longer allowed to receive visitors, to communicate with their families at home via video calls on smartphones or tablets. This caused an extra load on the Wi-Fi network. Teleconsultations were also used,” says Demesmaeker.

Due to COVID, hospitals were more targeted by hackers than in previous years.

“Trend Micro spontaneously came and asked if they could help. They then installed the Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Inspector solution to see if anything suspicious was happening on the network. That was a trigger to broaden the original scope and not only include endpoint security but also mobile security,” says Demesmaeker.

 
 

SOLUTION

UZ Brussel finally opted for a bundle of solutions with XDR capabilities for users. They chose Trend Micro Apex One for endpoint security, Trend Micro™ Mobile Security (backed by Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™) for Microsoft 365, Trend Micro™ ScanMail™ for Microsoft Exchange, and Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ Software for their data center.

“In the file, we also examined whether we would go with an external partner for a Security Operations Center (SOC). But given that the Trend Micro XDR bundle also includes managed services, this was the best option for us. There is 24/7 monitoring with email notifications and a report,” says Demesmaeker.

The implementation of the solution was completed in phases. Trend Micro Apex One was completed at the end of October 2020 while other solutions are already largely installed. For the integration and implementation, UZ Brussel relies on ePact, a trusted Trend Micro partner.

“We are very satisfied with the service provided. The integration went smoothly, without any problems and all the apps continued to work. A correct implementation is as important as choosing the solution itself,” says Demesmaeker.

 
 

RESULTS

UZ Brussel’s digital environment is now safer, allowing the IT team to focus on core tasks and leave the rest to Trend Micro specialists. “The nice thing about that is that it’s not just numbers. But also recommendations. Sometimes we get a comment about a user’s behavior. It then reads: ‘Make sure that you raise awareness with this user, because he did action X and Y. For example, check the URL he clicked on,’” says Demesmaeker.

The bundle of security solutions also provides much more insight into what is happening on the IT infrastructure.

“We used to see little or no attempts or lateral movements. Now we can follow them perfectly through the Deep Dicovery Inspector. They are not always malicious attempts - often just blind attempts - but you still want to know where and how many. Thanks to Trend Micro, that’s now possible.”

 
 

WHAT'S NEXT

One of the working points on UZ Brussel’s agenda is to set up internal actions to raise awareness. Concrete campaigns will follow in the course of this year. UZ Brussel is also looking beyond its own doorstep.

“In the healthcare sector, you all have the same goal. So if something happens in the security field - an attack, a phishing campaign - you know that it can happen at your or other hospitals as well. That’s why we are thinking of a platform to quickly share such attempts with other institutions in the healthcare sector so that they can also minimize the risk,” says Demesmaeker.

 
 

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

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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?

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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.

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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 !

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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.

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Contact us

Would you like to know more about CIONET Belgium, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!