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Belgium 01-10-2026 Squad Only Virtual english
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.
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Belgium 06-10-2026 All Members Physical english
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.
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Belgium 08-10-2026 All Members Physical english
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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CIONET Trailblazer: CISO: The Shift from Prevention to Resilience: Turning Visibility into Execution
Published on: January 28, 2026 @ 9:48 AM
CIONET Trailblazer: AI Transformation: Bridging the Cultural Divide to Achieve Competitive Advantage
Published on: December 17, 2025 @ 9:16 AM
Addresses an evolving security landscape in a critical sector with Trend Micro
OVERVIEW
As a leading independent upstream oil and gas company with operations in Australia, China, and Southeast Asia, Roc Oil Company (ROC) understands the challenge of protecting its critical data across regions. Operating across a wide environment, with strong industry relationships and services covering the exploration-to-delivery spectrum, ROC needed to ensure the integrity of critical systems and protect employees from rising threats. The company engaged Trend Micro to secure their environment—and gained a partner acting as a true extension of their IT team.
Having Trend only an arm’s length away ensures that we have the technical skillsets and abilities needed to navigate our security concerns.
CHALLENGES
The small ROC IT team struggled to gain visibility into their internal environment, which made it difficult for the team to detect threats and defend against evolving cyber risks. The company also needed to stay compliant with data sovereignty requirements due to its relationships with joint venture partners in Asia.
“My team and I inherited an environment with many moving parts and very little handover from previous IT management,” says Jack Smith, IT manager at ROC. “In an effort to minimize disruption and maintain the systems we had in place, we needed to ensure that there was a solid level of security coverage.”
WHY TREND
“When evaluating security vendors to replace a legacy solution, we found Trend to be the most proficient and cost-effective option, offering peace of mind across various workloads—from endpoints and desktops to server infrastructure and cloud services,” says Smith. “Having Trend only an arm’s length away ensures that we have the technical skillsets and abilities needed to navigate our security concerns.”
ROC’s decision to partner with Trend reflects the paramount need for innovation in Australia’s cybersecurity environment. The evolving Trend security platform resonates with ROC’s commitment to stay ahead of dynamic security risks.
Trend Vision One™ is brilliant because it provides a single-pane-of-glass approach. It’s refreshing — I can jump on and use security alerts at a glance and focus on what requires the most attention.
SOLUTION
Initially, Smith brought on Trend Micro Apex One™, Trend Micro™ Cloud App Security, and Trend Vision One™ – Workload Security to gain visibility across endpoints and server and cloud workloads. The company subsequently added Trend Vision One as an integrated security solution, allowing Smith’s team of four to understand the company’s risk posture across its entire ecosystem. ROC also chose Trend Service One™ with Trend Micro™ Managed XDR to increase the effectiveness of its Trend solutions deployment.
“Each month, we meet with our technical account managers for advice on security changes we should make or enforce, the importance and criticality of each, and priorities,” says Smith. “Trend Service One means we benefit from their expert skillsets to mitigate potential risks.”
RESULTS
“The Trend Vision One platform approach has improved our reporting capabilities, enabling us to easily inform senior management of monthly alerts and the company’s risk score,” says Smith. “The threat workbench feature within Trend Vision One allows my team to deep-dive into alerts and trace their origin. Automation and virtual patching mean I can maintain ROC’s architecture with very little disruption—providing peace of mind that employees are covered across older operating systems,” says Smith.
“Trend Vision One is brilliant because it provides a single-pane-of-glass approach. It’s refreshing—I can jump on and use security alerts at a glance and focus on what requires the most attention,” says Smith.
But it’s the managed approach of Trend Service One that’s most important for Smith. “Very early on I said to Trend Micro, ‘I need your help because we want to be sure that we’re using our solutions to their full potential’,” he says. “With other vendors, they get their foot in the door and then they sort of disappear. Trend Micro has always been in contact to ensure that we’re well taken care of and to promote other ideas outside the realm of what we’ve previously been thinking.”
“Trend Micro is constantly developing Trend Vision One capabilities and the value-add allows me to share risk-based reporting with our executives. I can take a snapshot with the alerts and just add that to my reports. I appreciate the reporting capabilities in the platform—it is well laid out and intuitive to use,” says Smith.
WHAT'S NEXT
ROC is actively exploring the implementation of a zero-trust security framework. “We feel as though zero trust may afford us the ability to further fine-tune our security posture. It’ll also consolidate a number of legacy approaches that we use to deliver services to our employees,” says Smith.
And when it comes time to renew, Smith believes there’s no other option but Trend. “There’s no consideration that I would be looking elsewhere, because I think all our needs and concerns have been met, and I’ve had nothing but a fantastic rapport with Trend Micro,” says Smith.
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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.
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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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