<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2528533714139722&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
New call-to-action
be-page-banner (1)

Welcome to CIONET Belgium

Realise your ambition! Connect with your local community of digital leaders.

See what's next

Upcoming Events

 
Banner

Belgium 23-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

Read More
Banner

Belgium 23-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Reclaim the cloud : Powering Belgian Finance with Sovereignty

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the financial services industry in Belgium faces a critical juncture regarding its cloud adoption strategy. While the allure of cloud computing – with its promise of scalability, agility, and innovation – is undeniable, the unique regulatory demands and paramount need for data sovereignty present significant challenges. This CIONET roundtable, aims to bring together Digital Leaders from the Belgian financial sector to discuss how to navigate these complexities. We will explore how financial institutions can leverage cloud technologies while ensuring complete control over their data, maintaining compliance with stringent European regulations like GDPR and DORA, and mitigating geopolitical risks.

Read More
Banner

Belgium 24-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Bridging the Unbridgeable: IT Meets M(i)OT ; Converged infrastructures demand converged security

As smart devices proliferate across operational environments — from sensors on factory lines and GPS trackers in logistics fleets to wearables in healthcare and connected systems in smart cities — the integration of Managed IoT (MiOT) is accelerating. But with it comes a surge in cybersecurity risks. No longer isolated or air-gapped, OT systems are becoming fully networked, remotely accessible, and deeply entwined with IT. This creates a vulnerable, highly complex digital mesh, one where a single compromised device can trigger physical, financial, and reputational consequences.

Read More

Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
Banner

September 23, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

Read More
Banner

September 30, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Technical Debt: When to Pay It and When to Walk Away ; Making smart trade-offs between progress, maintenance, and risk

Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.

Read More
Banner

October 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

The Career Path of the Architect ;Great architecture begins with great architects

Architecture doesn’t happen in diagrams. It happens in minds, seasoned, curious, sharp minds that understand how the pieces fit. But who’s shaping these minds? Who’s growing the next generation of digital architects? If you’re responsible for complex systems, and for the people designing them, this session is for you.

Read More

CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

Please Log In with your CIONET account first

Etat du Valais cuts time for digital services provision in 3

To cope with the pressure of more frequent releases, the ITOps shifted to a container approach, starting with Docker and eventually transitioning to Red Hat® OpenShift®. Discovering the Red Hat build of Quarkus and then adopting it has allowed developers to focus on delivering business value, increase test speeds, and cut development time by a 3rd.

The cantonal administration Etat du Valais serves the 345,000 inhabitants of the canton of
Valais in southwestern Switzerland. As digitization climbed its agenda, IT wanted to deliver more
value to the business faster. When more frequent releases put pressure on the IT operations
team, developers switched to a container approach, initially with Docker and later with Red Hat
OpenShift. Discovering the Red Hat build of Quarkus at the Red Hat Summit and subsequently
adopting it has allowed developers to focus on delivering business value and test faster,
cutting development to one 3rd. 

 

Delivering advanced digital services for the citizens of Valais
Situated in southwestern Switzerland, the Valais is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss
Confederation. Its population of around 350,000 inhabitants lives across 67 square kilometers
of land, which includes Monte Rosa and Lake Geneva. Etat du Valais, the Valais’ cantonal
administration, has around 40 business units (departments), which cover everything from
finance and energy to security, institutions, and sport.
The cantonal administration is eager to provide its citizens with modern services to meet their
needs and, at the same time, offer the best value. With digitization high on its agenda, IT wanted to
provide value to the business faster. “Our development team adopted an Agile approach and began
delivering new functionality every couple of weeks,” said Steve Favez, Web Architect and Head
of Internet Capability Center at Etat du Valais. However, the more frequent releases put a lot of
pressure on the operations team.
Moving to using containers with Docker empowered the development team to deploy its
applications to production without relying on the operations team. “We started to have more
and more applications deployed on Docker and so began thinking about orchestrating all those
applications,” said Favez. “We moved to Red Hat OpenShift to give us better security and a better
ecosystem, further improving our ability to deliver more and more value to the business.”
Favez and his small team of ten saw that Red Hat OpenShift offered more opportunities to allow
them to deliver more value to the business—and cost-efficiency. “We realized we could save
CPU and memory resources and thus reduce costs by stopping some applications,” said Favez.
“We could switch off applications that are only used for a few months of the year and switch off
our testing and quality control environments if we had nothing under development.”
Restarting an application based on Spring Boot or even the legacy J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition)
framework could take ten or even 20 seconds. This slow startup was wasting time, not only for the
operations team managing the applications but also for the development team updating them.
“When our developers came to test the new functionality they had just written, they were wasting
a lot of time waiting for their application to start running,” said Favez

 

Adopting a Kubernetes-native Java framework for containerized applications
Favez discovered the perfect solution while attending Red Hat Summit. Full of enthusiasm, on his
return, he presented the Red Hat build of Quarkus—part of Red Hat Application Foundations—to
his team. The Red Hat build of Quarkus is an open source, container-first, Kubernetes-native Java
framework that allows developers to optimize container-native applications. “The Red Hat build of
Quarkus had exactly the capabilities we needed,” said Favez. “It would give us elasticity. It would
allow us to switch applications on and off to save resources. And I wouldn’t need to teach my Java
developers a new language.”
To prove the concept, Favez wrote a small service to scan a file for viruses in just one day.
When he had previously written the service—a RESTful Web API—in Spring Boot, it took 1 week. “We’d
had some issues with the Spring Boot version,” said Favez. “It didn’t manage large files well.
But the Quarkus version worked perfectly.”
redhat.com Case study Etat du Valais cuts time for digital services provision in three 3
With the success of this first proof of concept, which went to production after 1 week, the team
started using the Red Hat build of Quarkus on larger projects. “The result was exactly the same,”
said Favez. “People developed faster. It was easy, and it worked. We now use the Red Hat build of
Quarkus for every new application we write. And we are migrating applications from legacy
frameworks to Quarkus when we have the time.”

 

Accelerating time-to-market while optimizing costs


Saved operational costs thanks to a smaller footprint
The Red Hat build of Quarkus allows developers to optimize container-native applications for peak
performance. Its small computing resource footprint ensures low memory and CPU consumption,
reducing overall costs.
“We’ve cut our application computing resource usage in three,” said Favez, “because the native mode
of Quarkus is so fast and so light.” In 1 instance, an application the team had written using Spring
Boot required 500 megabytes of memory—but just 50 megabytes with the Red Hat build of Quarkus.
In 2024, the team is planning to take advantage of Knative to become more elastic. Knative
eliminates provisioning and server management tasks, so developers can focus on building business
value. They will be able to create a service by packaging code as a container image and deploying
it on Red Hat OpenShift, and it will only run when its needed; Knative automatically starts and
stops instances. This will ensure computing resources aren’t consumed unless the code needs
to do something.
Existing Quarkus applications have been built in native mode, making them Knative-ready and easy
to deploy on the platform in the future.

 

Reduced cluster usage by 40%, making room for new workloads
With those applications having a significantly smaller footprint using the framework of Red Hat’s
build of Quarkus, operations can now run additional meaningful workloads on their existing Red Hat
OpenShift cluster. Spring Boot would require a cluster up to 40% larger than Red Hat’s build
of Quarkus.
“Quarkus has brought a big improvement to our Red Hat OpenShift cluster,” said Favez. “Operations
don’t have to add new nodes when we deploy more applications. We are deploying more and more
applications, and we are not using our entire cluster. We can continue to deliver things without having
to increase the size of our Red Hat OpenShift cluster.”

 

Increased developer productivity threefold
The fast startup times of Red Hat’s build of Quarkus’ have helped Etat du Valais significantly
reduce development time. “With Red Hat Quarkus, we’ve cut development time by three compared
to using our old J2EE server eight years ago,” said Favez. “Our developers can write their code faster,
and they can test it faster too.”
Developers no longer have to wait for their applications to restart each time they test it—they can
now code and test it straight away.
Favez also commented that developers can now focus on creating business value because
Red Hat’s build of Quarkus natively provides technical functionality. “Quarkus gives developers
the code needed to invoke a web service, for instance,” said Favez. “They can really focus on the
business functionality because they don’t have to write the low-level code.” 

 

Ensured an easy transition from Spring and J2EE for Java developers
Switching from the Spring Boot and J2EE frameworks to Red Hat’s build of Quarkus was really easy
for Etat du Valais’ developers. “Red Hat Quarkus is still Java,” said Favez. “It uses a language that my
team was already familiar with. So, it was no big deal to move from J2EE or Spring Boot to Red Hat
Quarkus. It was really easy. There is nothing new for them.”
Despite not having any previous experience with Quarkus, Favez rewrote an API that had taken a
week to write in Spring Boot in just one day. “The documentation of Quarkus is just perfect and really
easy to understand. This API was working better than the one we wrote in Spring Boot,” said Favez.
“We had it in production within a week.”

 

Expanding success to business units and partners
Etat du Valais’ central development team is so happy with the Red Hat build of Quarkus that Favez
doesn’t need to mandate that they use it, even though he has stipulated that any new application will
be written using the Quarkus framework. He is instead encouraging developers within the business
units and third-party providers to use it.
“Not every provider is using Quarkus; most are still using Spring Boot or J2EE frameworks,”
said Favez. “We are telling them, ‘please use frameworks that use less memory. Quarkus is a good
solution.’ We say that we are really gaining a lot from it, and they will gain something too if they use
it to develop applications for us.”
In its effort to do more with less, the administration plans to also adopt Red Hat Ansible®
 Automation
Platform for automatically provisioning and changing systems. “Automation with Ansible Automation
Platform will be really important for Etat du Valais,” said Favez.
With integration high on the agenda, the administration also has Red Hat AMQ Streams to its
roadmap. Red Hat AMQ streams is Red Hat’s implementation of the Apache Kafka project and, like
the Red Hat build of Quarkus, is part of Red Hat Application Foundations and includes the Apache
Camel and Camel on Quarkus integration frameworks, among other technologies for connecting
applications and data. “Red Hat has made it easy for us to install and use these important integration
tools on our Red Hat OpenShift clusters,” said Favez.
The open source solutions provided by Red Hat meet the many needs of today’s organizations: “
Red Hat really understands development and operational teams’ requirements,” said Favez.
“Doing more with less is a requirement for every team, every company. And Red Hat provides
all the tools that we need to do that, and they do it well.”

 

About Etat du Valais
The Valais cantonal administration (Etat du Valais) is 1 of the largest employers in Valais and offers
jobs in 40 different departments and in around 150 different professions. Every day, employees use
their diverse skills to help shape the high quality of life and the future of the canton. 

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

Banner
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?

Read More
Banner
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.

Read More
Banner
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 !

Read More
Banner
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.

Read More

Check out our latest news

Testimonials

Geert Goethals
Geert Goethals
CIO
Sibelga
Bahadir Samli
Bahadir Samli
CIO
ING Belgique
2-Feb-29-2024-11-35-00-9309-AM
Bart Kerkhofs
Vice President & Head of IT
Bridgestone EMIA
Untitled design (1)-Apr-01-2022-10-58-34-57-AM
Michał Paprocki
Group CIO
Euroclear
1-Feb-29-2024-11-34-59-8990-AM
Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer
Chief Information Officer
NATO
Untitled design-Nov-22-2023-08-42-05-3178-AM
Annick Faes
Vice President IT and CIO Medical Devices EMEA
Johnson & Johnson
Piet_De_Ceuleners
Piet De Ceuleners
Global IT Director
Melexis
1658251930890
Dirk De Bevere
Large Enterprise Sales Leader
Telenet Business
Untitled design-7
Stef Schampaert
Country Managing Director BeLux
Red Hat
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Geert Lejon
Geert Lejon
Vice President Head of Belux / Head of Comms Benelux
Cognizant
Kevin_Ledegen
Kevin Ledegen
Group IT director
SDWorx
Gunter-Van-Craen_Small
Gunter Van Craen
Chief Digital & Information Officer
Bekaert
Thomas Kessler
Thomas Kessler
Partner | CIO Programme Leader
Deloitte
Emmanuel Gob
Emmanuel Gob
CIO
DPD
pascal pauwels
Pascal Pauwels
CIO
Colruyt
Untitled design (4)-Dec-13-2023-10-53-15-5032-AM
Koen Segers
Managing Director Belgium and Luxembourg
Dell Technologies
benoit dewaele
Benoît Dewaele
Group IT Directo
Vandemoortele
Dirk Deridder-1
Dirk Deridder
CTO - Technology Services & Practices
SMALS
Thierry Driesens
Thierry Driesens
CIO
TVH
Untitled design-Sep-18-2023-11-59-29-7866-AM
Koen Vandaele
CIO
Delen Private Bank
Untitled design (4)-Jun-12-2023-01-23-11-7540-PM
Liesbet D'hoker
Managing Director
Kyndryl BeLux
steven-vermeulen
Steven Vermeulen
CIO
Digitaal Vlaanderen
Jack Hamande
Jack Hamande
Director General Digital Transformation
Federale Overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning
Tom Tomczak
Tom Tomczak
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
NRB
1726588748718
Cassandre Laurent
Directeur général
Agence du Numérique
an swalens
An Swalens
Head Of IT (CIO)
National Bank of Belgium
Untitled design (2)-Apr-01-2022-10-58-34-68-AM
Elke Laeremans
Chief Digital & Supply Chain Officer at Casa International
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Koen Van Loo
Koen Van Loo
CIO
Group S.
Peter Sany
Peter Sany
Executive Advisor
Zoom
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Steven De Haes
Steven De Haes
Dean
Antwerp Management School
Marleen Thorré
Marleen Thorré
Head of Digital EMEA
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
christel-plessers
Christel Plessers
Head of IT European Markets
Mercedes-Benz Europe
bauduin cor
Baudouin Corlùy
Chief Market Development Officer
LCL Data Centers

Team

Luc Hendrikx
Luc Hendrikx
Partner - CEO
Inès De Bien
Inès De Bien
Partner - CCO
1-Feb-08-2022-10-22-08-68-AM
Daniel Eycken
Partner - COO
Hendrik Deckers
Hendrik Deckers
Partner - Founder
Untitled design (1)-2
Jelte Scheys
Tribes Sales Director Belgium
foto Herman
Herman Roelandts
Tribe Master
Joseph Antoun
Joseph Antoun
Senior Programme Director
1-Dec-16-2021-02-15-57-02-PM
Eman De Sutter
Programme Manager
4-Feb-08-2022-10-22-09-03-AM
Shelly Deracourt
Programme Manager
Untitled design (5)-Sep-01-2022-02-47-55-60-PM
Charlotte Coen
Partner Success Manager
Untitled design (1)-Nov-22-2023-08-56-42-6802-AM
Ivana Bradvica
Programme Manager
ML B-W-1
Martine Lefevre
Financial Controller
Vlera Berishaa (1)
Vlera Berisha
Community Manager
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Programme Manager

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!