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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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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 Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete.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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Belgium 9-9-25 Squad Only Physical english

Fixing the Data Foundations ; Making data trustworthy, consistent, and ready for action

As Belgium navigates the complexities of GDPR and various data sovereignty regulations, organizations across multiple industries face both challenges and opportunities in managing their data across borders. The quest for compliance often intersects with the need for business growth, raising questions about the balance between protection and progress. How can companies effectively own and safeguard their data while ensuring compliance without stifling innovation and expansion in a multi-industry landscape?

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Belgium 11-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english

Customer Experience at the Frontline ; Designing digital tools that actually work

You’ve built the portal. Added the chatbot. Rolled out self-service. But your support lines are still ringing. And your frontline teams are still improvising. If you want digital services to feel seamless, not just look polished, this session brings you back to where value is felt: at the frontline.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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September 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

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

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 Your CMDB should help, but it’s rigid, outdated, or incomplete.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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September 9, 2025 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual polish

Talenty w akcji: sekrety pozyskiwania i rozwoju w CIRF

Utrzymanie talentów w organizacji IT ulokowanej na konkurencyjnym rynku pracy to nie lada zadanie. A jeśli do tego mówimy o organizacji z sektora publicznego? O swoich i swojej organizacji doświadczeniach, metodach i programach opowie Anna Wituła z CIRF. Będzie to jak zawsze okazja do dyskusji na temat różnych sposobów na utrzymanie talentów w firmie.

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September 9, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Physical english

Fixing the Data Foundations ; Making data trustworthy, consistent, and ready for action

As Belgium tackles GDPR and data sovereignty rules, organizations face challenges and opportunities in cross-border data management. Balancing compliance with growth raises key questions: How can companies protect and control their data while staying compliant—without blocking innovation and expansion across industries?

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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Modern Woodmen of America protects remote workforce with unified security

Protects remote workforce with unified security

OVERVIEW

As one of the largest member-owned fraternal financial services organizations in the U.S., Modern Woodmen of America provides life insurance, annuities and other financial products to more than 750,000 members nationwide. Founded in 1883, the organization’s name was inspired by pioneering woodmen clearing forests and building communities to provide security for their families. Modern Woodmen’s founder felt this was the perfect symbol to illustrate his goal of clearing away financial burdens for families.

Based in Rock Island, Illinois, Modern Woodmen of America has more than 500 employees and approximately 1,500 field representatives serving members in 48 states. The organization is committed to improving the lives of its members and their communities through financial guidance and social, educational and volunteer fraternal activities.

 
 

CHALLENGES

Modern Woodmen’s IT security team supports the entire IT environment and workforce, including internal endpoints and laptops used by representatives in the field. While the organization was already using Trend Micro™ OfficeScan™ solution to successfully secure the endpoints for more than 500 internal users, it had issues protecting endpoints for its 1,500 field representatives with another security vendor’s solution. “It was a struggle to keep our field representatives’ devices protected at the level we felt they should be protected,” said Darwin Larrison, Senior Manager Information Security, Modern Woodmen.

Modern Woodmen wanted to extend the benefits of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) but did not want a security solution that caused performance problems. As a financial organization, it is required to comply with regulations, including Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) standards, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and multi-state insurance regulations.

To improve efficiency and increase visibility across the organization, Modern Woodmen hoped to unify its security ecosystem, connect solutions and quickly generate detailed reports on its security posture for the board of directors and senior management.

 

"We look for best-of-breed solutions, and Trend Micro pushes the envelope to achieve new levels of protection and deliver the best security products available."

Darwin D. Larrison

Senior Manager, Information Security

 
 

WHY TREND

Since Modern Woodmen was already using OfficeScan to protect its internal endpoints and Trend Micro™ Deep Security™ solution for VDI, its IT security team was pleased to learn about Trend Micro™ Worry-Free™ Services to secure the remote workforce. After conducting a thorough proof of concept, the organization found Worry-Free Services met its needs for protection, productivity and efficiency in a hosted model. “With Worry-Free Services, we can provide our field representatives with the best possible protection for their laptops without the need for internal infrastructure to support it,” said Larrison.

 

"Trend Micro solutions help us understand the threat landscape."

Darwin D. Larrison

Senior Manager, Information Security

 
 

SOLUTION

Worry-Free Services delivers automatic updates directly to laptops. This ensures remote computers are always protected. The solution defends against viruses and malware with machine learning technology, and it includes advanced URL filtering that blocks inappropriate websites and web threat protection that stops malware before it reaches users. “After installation, the solution immediately identified security gaps, which we were able to quickly resolve to get back to a healthy baseline,” said Larrison.

Deep Security is currently being used by approximately 200 internal users on VDI. “Deep Security makes total sense for VDI. We don’t want locally installed agents or anything else slowing down a VDI image, and the real-time monitoring and protection at the hypervisor level is a key feature,” said Larrison.

Trend Micro also helped Modern Woodmen unify its security solution management into a single screen. With Trend Micro Control Manager ™, the company can manage OfficeScan, Deep Security and Worry-Free Services from the same console. “Tying everything together on a single pane of glass gives our team visibility across our entire threat landscape,” said Larrison.

 

"With Worry-Free hosted endpoint security, we can provide our field representatives with the best possible protection for their laptops without having to set up an internal infrastructure to support it."

Darwin D. Larrison

Senior Manager, Information Security

 
 

RESULTS

With Trend Micro solutions protecting endpoints for its internal and remote workforce, Modern Woodmen has taken a huge step toward formalizing its cybersecurity program and providing real-time protection for its member information. The solutions also help to reduce security management costs by decreasing the time spent fixing issues and minimizing compliance concerns. “Trend Micro solutions help us understand the threat landscape to improve our overall security and our regulatory compliance posture,” said Larrison.

With Control Manager generating granular reports on Modern Woodmen’s security posture, the security team can now deliver actionable information to their board, senior management and directors to support the value of its security investment. “Trend Micro solutions are doing a great job of keeping Modern Woodmen protected,” said Larrison.

 
 

WHAT'S NEXT

Looking ahead, Modern Woodmen plans to continue to align with the company’s strategic cybersecurity framework. “We’re looking forward to upgrading to the latest version of OfficeScan with machine learning and emerging technologies, which are revolutionizing IT security,” said Larrison.

Modern Woodmen also plans to offer Worry-Free Services with mobile protection to its field representatives once testing is complete. “Most importantly, we plan to continue securing our IT environment with best-of-breed solutions and remain a trusted advisor to our members,” said Larrison.

 

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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